Track Listing

1. In the evening
2. South bound saurez
3. Fool in the rain
4. Hot dog
5. Carouselambra
6. All my love
7. I'm gonna crawl

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7917 in Music
• Released on: 1997-08-25
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Dimensions: .20 pounds

CD Description
The last proper Led Zeppelin album shows the group's response to punk's encroachment to be a regal shrug and a continuation of the outsized heavy rock that made the band a legend.There are a few interesting stylistic detours--the almost salsa-like piano that drives "Fool in the Rain", the country-flavoured hoedown of "Hot Dog"--but for the most part this is 1970s rock in the grandest style. John Paul Jones in particular struts his stuff here, his synthesizer powering "Carouselambra", Zeppelin's furthest excursion into prog rock, andsweetening "All My Love", a balladic requiem for Robert Plant's late son, Karac. Zeppelin sounds so assured on IN THROUGH THE OUT DOOR it's hard to believe the end of the band wasjust around the corner.

Customer Reviews

A much maligned but original album
This 1978 album was the last that Zep would commit to vinyl, the formula completely overhauled after Robert Plant tragically lost his son to pneumonia whilst the band were full flight on their behemoth 1977 US tour. Plant took a year off to recover and John Paul Jones beat the rest to the studio and programmed a lot of keyboard backing. The album opens with "In the Evening" classic Zep rock with a killer riff, the style changes with samba "south bound suarez" yee haw country rock "hot dog" and "fool in the Rain " "carouselambra is an epic cut of different sections which dominates side two a bit like Jan Hammer in places, the guitar and drums are excellent but are buried down the mix for a change, "all my Love" is a great track marred but crappy now dated keyboard effects and "i'm gonna crawl" emerges from a banal keyboard refrain into one of the most powerful emotive blues type songs of Zep's career. It's not their best work but it's worth a look for "in the Evening", "i'm gonna crawl" and the hilarious "hot dog".

Not as bad as you might think, but not the best
Led Zeppelin's final album may seem the most dated today, due to it's then revolutionary use of polyphonic synthesizers and it's very intensive production, foreshadowing the 80's sound. This also leaves the guitar lacking in raunch and the vocals somewhat muffled. Yet as an example of where Led Zeppelin was going in the late seventies, it's very interesting. Opener 'In the Evening' is a typical magestic Led Zeppelin rock number,(in the vein of Kashmir) enhanced by Jones's synths. 'South Bound Saurez' is a strange boogie style number with Jones taking center stage on piano. 'Fool in the Rain' is a weird samba type song which again shows Led Zeppelin doing something very different. 'Hot Dog' is one of Zep's worst songs in my opinion, a tastless ode to 50's rock n roll. 'Carouselambra' is the gem of this album, plastered in synths and charged with an ominous energy that carries it through it's ten minute duration. 'All My Love' is Robert's lament to the death of his son, Karac, but though the sentiment is genuine the dated synths fail to make the impact acoustic guitar would. Final number I'm gonna Crawl is a blues, but again the twist is the incorporation of synths, but it still works fantastically in the vein of it's predecesors Since I've been loving you and Tea for One. So, if you have got all the other albums and fancy something different, get it, especially for Carouselambra.

Pity about the Frankfurter
This was my introduction to Led Zeppelin, the first Zep LP I bought as a 15 year old. It got me hooked and my ELO habit soon faded. So this album has a special resonance for me and when I bought it on CD it was the first of the original albums I bought on CD. In the Evening is a superb opening with Jimmy Page on top form. Southbound Suarez and Fool in the Rain have a latino feel and many Zep fans hate these tracks but to me they just show that the band could go where they wished. Hot Dog, however, is a waste of space and spoils the whole album, it should have been on Coda instead of Darlene. What was side two opens with the prog of Carouselambra before going into the tender ballad on, All of my Love. The album closes out with the bluesy I'm Gonna Crawl.

In Through The Out Door may not have been Led Zeppelin's magnus opus but it does not deserve the opprobium heaped on it by many Zepheads. Well apart from Hot Dog!