Unlimited Streaming
Listen to this album in high quality now on our apps
Start my trial period and start listening to this albumEnjoy this album on Qobuz apps with your subscription
SubscribeEnjoy this album on Qobuz apps with your subscription
Digital Download
Purchase and download this album in a wide variety of formats depending on your needs.
Created at a time of intense turmoil for Led Zeppelin -- they scrapped a planned international tour in the wake of Robert Plant's car accident in Greece in August 1975 -- Presence is a strange, misshapen beast of a record that pulls upon its own tension. With Plant somewhat on the sidelines -- he recorded many of the vocals while in a wheelchair -- Jimmy Page reasserted himself as the primary creative force in the band, helping steer Presence toward a guitar-heavy complexity, perched halfway between a return to roots and unfettered prog. This dichotomy means it feels like Presence sprawls as wildly as Physical Graffiti even though it's half its length: the four epics tend to overshadow the trio of lean rockers that really do hark back to the Chess boogie and rockabilly that informed Zeppelin's earliest work. Each of these three -- "Royal Orleans," "Candy Store Rock," "Hots on for Nowhere" -- plays as snappily as the throwaways on the second half of Physical Graffiti, containing a sexy insouciance; the band almost seems to shrug off how catchy Page's riffs and how thick the grooves of John Bonham and John Paul Jones actually are. No matter how much fun this triptych is, they're lost underneath the shadow of "Achilles Last Stand," a ten-minute exercise in self-styled moody majesty and the turgid blues crawl of closer "Tea for One." In between, there are two unalloyed masterpieces that channel all of the pain of the period into cinematic drama: a molten blues called "Nobody's Fault But Mine" and "For Your Life," as sharp, cinematic, and pained as Zeppelin ever were. Added together, Presence winds up as something less than the sum of its parts but its imbalance also means that it's a record worth revisiting; it seems different upon each revisit and is always compelling.
© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo
You are currently listening to samples.
Listen to over 100 million songs with an unlimited streaming plan.
Listen to this playlist and more than 100 million songs with our unlimited streaming plans.
From $10.83/month
John Davis, Remastering Engineer - Robert Plant, Vocals, Writer - Jimmy Page, Producer, Guitar, Writer - John Bonham, Drums - Led Zeppelin, MainArtist - John Paul Jones, Bass Guitar - Keith Harwood, Engineer
© 2015 Atlantic Recording Corporation, a Warner Music Group Company. All Rights Reserved. ℗ 2012 Atlantic Records
John Davis, Remastering Engineer - Robert Plant, Vocals, Writer - Jimmy Page, Producer, Guitar, Writer - John Bonham, Drums - Led Zeppelin, MainArtist - John Paul Jones, Bass Guitar - Keith Harwood, Engineer
© 2015 Atlantic Recording Corporation, a Warner Music Group Company. All Rights Reserved. ℗ 2012 Atlantic Records
John Davis, Remastering Engineer - Robert Plant, Vocals, Writer - Jimmy Page, Producer, Guitar, Writer - John Bonham, Drums, Writer - Led Zeppelin, MainArtist - John Paul Jones, Bass Guitar, Writer
© 2015 Atlantic Recording Corporation, a Warner Music Group Company. All Rights Reserved. ℗ 2012 Atlantic Records
John Davis, Remastering Engineer - Robert Plant, Vocals, Writer, Harmonica - Jimmy Page, Producer, Guitar, Writer - John Bonham, Drums - Led Zeppelin, MainArtist - John Paul Jones, Bass Guitar - Keith Harwood, Engineer
© 2015 Atlantic Recording Corporation, a Warner Music Group Company. All Rights Reserved. ℗ 2012 Atlantic Records
John Davis, Remastering Engineer - Robert Plant, Vocals, Writer - Jimmy Page, Producer, Guitar, Writer - John Bonham, Drums - Led Zeppelin, MainArtist - John Paul Jones, Bass Guitar - Keith Harwood, Engineer
© 2015 Atlantic Recording Corporation, a Warner Music Group Company. All Rights Reserved. ℗ 2012 Atlantic Records
John Davis, Remastering Engineer - Robert Plant, Vocals, Writer - Jimmy Page, Producer, Guitar, Writer - John Bonham, Drums - Led Zeppelin, MainArtist - John Paul Jones, Bass Guitar - Keith Harwood, Engineer
© 2015 Atlantic Recording Corporation, a Warner Music Group Company. All Rights Reserved. ℗ 2012 Atlantic Records
John Davis, Remastering Engineer - Robert Plant, Vocals, Writer - Jimmy Page, Producer, Guitar, Writer - John Bonham, Drums - Led Zeppelin, MainArtist - John Paul Jones, Bass Guitar - Keith Harwood, Engineer
© 2015 Atlantic Recording Corporation, a Warner Music Group Company. All Rights Reserved. ℗ 2012 Atlantic Records
DISC 2
John Davis, MasteringEngineer - Robert Plant, Vocals, Writer - Jimmy Page, Producer, Guitar, Writer - John Bonham, Drums - Led Zeppelin, MainArtist - John Paul Jones, Bass Guitar - Keith Harwood, Engineer
© 2015 Atlantic Recording Corporation, a Warner Music Group Company. All Rights Reserved. ℗ 2015 Atlantic Records
John Davis, MasteringEngineer - Robert Plant, Vocals, Writer - Jimmy Page, Producer, Guitar, Writer - John Bonham, Drums - Led Zeppelin, MainArtist - John Paul Jones, Bass Guitar
© 2015 Atlantic Recording Corporation, a Warner Music Group Company. All Rights Reserved. ℗ 2015 Atlantic Records
John Davis, MasteringEngineer - Jimmy Page, Producer, Guitar, Writer - John Bonham, Drums - Led Zeppelin, MainArtist - John Paul Jones, Bass Guitar, Piano, Writer - Keith Harwood, Engineer
© 2015 Atlantic Recording Corporation, a Warner Music Group Company. All Rights Reserved. ℗ 2015 Atlantic Records
John Davis, MasteringEngineer - Robert Plant, Vocals, Writer - Jimmy Page, Producer, Guitar, Writer - John Bonham, Drums, Writer - Led Zeppelin, MainArtist - John Paul Jones, Bass Guitar, Writer - Keith Harwood, Engineer
© 2015 Atlantic Recording Corporation, a Warner Music Group Company. All Rights Reserved. ℗ 2015 Atlantic Records
John Davis, MasteringEngineer - Robert Plant, Vocals, Writer - Jimmy Page, Producer, Guitar, Writer - John Bonham, Drums - Led Zeppelin, MainArtist - John Paul Jones, Bass Guitar - Keith Harwood, Engineer
© 2015 Atlantic Recording Corporation, a Warner Music Group Company. All Rights Reserved. ℗ 2015 Atlantic Records
Album review
Created at a time of intense turmoil for Led Zeppelin -- they scrapped a planned international tour in the wake of Robert Plant's car accident in Greece in August 1975 -- Presence is a strange, misshapen beast of a record that pulls upon its own tension. With Plant somewhat on the sidelines -- he recorded many of the vocals while in a wheelchair -- Jimmy Page reasserted himself as the primary creative force in the band, helping steer Presence toward a guitar-heavy complexity, perched halfway between a return to roots and unfettered prog. This dichotomy means it feels like Presence sprawls as wildly as Physical Graffiti even though it's half its length: the four epics tend to overshadow the trio of lean rockers that really do hark back to the Chess boogie and rockabilly that informed Zeppelin's earliest work. Each of these three -- "Royal Orleans," "Candy Store Rock," "Hots on for Nowhere" -- plays as snappily as the throwaways on the second half of Physical Graffiti, containing a sexy insouciance; the band almost seems to shrug off how catchy Page's riffs and how thick the grooves of John Bonham and John Paul Jones actually are. No matter how much fun this triptych is, they're lost underneath the shadow of "Achilles Last Stand," a ten-minute exercise in self-styled moody majesty and the turgid blues crawl of closer "Tea for One." In between, there are two unalloyed masterpieces that channel all of the pain of the period into cinematic drama: a molten blues called "Nobody's Fault But Mine" and "For Your Life," as sharp, cinematic, and pained as Zeppelin ever were. Added together, Presence winds up as something less than the sum of its parts but its imbalance also means that it's a record worth revisiting; it seems different upon each revisit and is always compelling.
© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo
About the album
- 2 disc(s) - 12 track(s)
- Total length: 01:16:19
- Main artists: Led Zeppelin
- Label: Atlantic Records
- Genre: Pop/Rock Rock
© 2015 Atlantic Recording Corporation, a Warner Music Group Company. All Rights Reserved. ℗ 2015 Atlantic Recording Corporation, a Warner Music Group Company. All Rights Reserved. Manufactured & Marketed by Warner Music Group
Improve album informationWhy buy on Qobuz?
-
Stream or download your music
Buy an album or an individual track. Or listen to our entire catalog with our high-quality unlimited streaming subscriptions.
-
Zero DRM
The downloaded files belong to you, without any usage limit. You can download them as many times as you like.
-
Choose the format best suited for you
Download your purchases in a wide variety of formats (FLAC, ALAC, WAV, AIFF...) depending on your needs.
-
Listen to your purchases on our apps
Download the Qobuz apps for smartphones, tablets, and computers, and listen to your purchases wherever you go.