Led Zeppelin is and has always been the essence of cool. It does not even make sense that they are. The lyrics to their songs are more nerdy than the “leetspeak” my brother types to his fellow Horde in the middle of a quest on the World of Warcraft. But somehow, Led Zeppelin has always been able to transcend any amount of stereotyping that has been placed on them or their music. Led Zeppelin essentially redefined the rock genre in the 1970s, perhaps as much as the Beatles did in the ‘60s. It seems almost wrong to attempt to boil down such an iconic band’s discography into twenty-four songs yet that is what the new “greatest hits” album/DVD, Mothership, attempts to do.
The three disc collection (two CDs and one DVD) was overseen personally by the three still-living members of Led Zeppelin (Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones, and Robert Plant). Once the songs were chosen by the band, Jimmy Page went back and re-mastered every single one. The song choice is pretty standard fare for Led Zeppelin. “Dazed and Confused”, “Kashmir”, “Black Dog”, “Stairway to Heaven” and other Zeppelin favorites all make appearances on the compilation. If nothing else, Mothership is a great introductory album for that whole new generation of teenagers to get into Zeppelin. The album does feature a few lesser known songs such as the “Over the Hills and Far Away” and “D’Yer Mak’er”. However, when it comes down to it, Mothership is all about hard rocking Zeppelin. You wont find cuts like the folksy “Bron-Y-Aur Stomp” on Mothership, no matter how much you would love to hear those great tracks re-mastered.
The problem with Mothership is that one has to question how much another Led Zeppelin greatest hits album was necessary. The track listing of Mothership is practically the same as the 2002 “greatest hits” album, Early Days and Latter Days, so why another compilation? Personally, I wish the compilation was comprised of more rare songs not already on Early Days and Latter Days and B-sides that the band does not already have on an album, similar to the Beatles Anthology series that was released in the 1990s.
There is no denying that every song on Mothership is classic Zeppelin and for all intents and purposes captures the hard-rocking spirit of the band. There are too many spectacular songs that shaped rock history on Mothership to say the album is not a great pick up. Here is my advice to you: if you already have Early Days and Latter Days then there is no reason to buy Mothership. If you don’t have Early Days then Mothership is a must have for any rock fan, especially with the bonus DVD of live material included in the set. In the end, Mothership is the perfect way for any Zeppelin fan to “let the Led out.”
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