Houses of the Holy

Houses of the Holy finds Led Zeppelin moving easily beyond heavy blues rock, gathering a wide range of musical landscapes into one album. In 1972 the band took the Rolling Stones Mobile Studio to Stargroves, Mick Jagger's country house, and also worked at Headley Grange and Olympic. Eddie Kramer returned as engineer. Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones had by then installed studios at home, which let them arrive with completed arrangements in hand. The title track was left off and held over for Physical Graffiti. The opening move from the rush of “The Song Remains the Same” into the wide-open “The Rain Song” reveals the group's range at once. “The Crunge” boldly tests funk, and on “D'yer Mak'er” John Bonham tried to join reggae to 1950s doo-wop. Jones disliked the track, saying it was treated as a joke, yet it became a US top 20 hit. His own “No Quarter” had been attempted and abandoned during the fourth album; revived with layered piano and synthesizers, it became a live centrepiece for the rest of the band's career. Delays producing the Hipgnosis sleeve pushed release from January to March. It was their last album on Atlantic; the following year they founded Swan Song.