Holiday shopping season is rapidly nearing, and you know what that means: prime time for fossilized rock stars to release self-prostituting "best-of" compilations that collect and reorganize all the songs you already have.
This time it's Led Zeppelin, everybody's favorite British rock gods, unloading "Mothership." While this might seem like a shameless cash grab (those sequined leather pants and first edition pressings of "The Hobbit" didn't pay for themselves), this 24-song album captures the foursome via remastered digital files for the first time. Yes, at long last, Zep is on iTunes.
The collection hits the high points on each of their eight albums. You get the banshee wail of "Immigrant Song," the Tolkien babble of "Ramble On" and the sinister "Dazed and Confused," every guitar geek's favorite Jimmy Page freak-out. Unfortunately, the set captures their mid- to late-'70s decline as well, so you also get "Trampled Under Foot," "In the Evening" and the reggae joke "D'yer Mak'er" (pronounced "Jamaica" if you say it in a mangled English accent, supposedly).
If you're the kind who feels "Achilles Last Stand" is not brilliant but is rather eight minutes too long, do yourself a favor and skip over the late-era stuff.
Since Zeppelin also released the rest of its entire catalogue Tuesday, track down "The Rover," "Gallows Pole," "Sick Again" and the B-side "Hey, Hey (What Can I Do?)."
These cuts prove this band did more than just pillage their favorite bluesmen's back catalogues.
If you haven't already heard these tunes, drop the ,13.99, bust out the dual-neck air guitar, and crank the volume.
