10 Perfect Albums That Have Awful Production

Most hard rock fans would have probably been totally fine if Led Zeppelin had decided to bow out right after making Physical Graffiti. Although albums like Presence definitely had the same extravagant songs that the band were known for, the double album experience of Graffiti was the perfect send off to the legendary period of the band, taking their mix of blues and Eastern mysticism and blending it all together under one roof. That was all the '70s though, and In Through the Out Door was the peek at what Led Zeppelin may have sounded like in the next decade.

While the band might be playing better than ever on a song like Fool in the Rain, this album is also home to some of the most questionable production choices to turn up on a Led Zeppelin album, like the strange rockabilly jam that they hammer out on Hot Dog or trying to capture the same kind of extravagance of Achilles Last Stand and falling flat on the song Carouselambra.

There are certainly good songs accounted for on here like All My Love, but it tends to feel more like what Robert Plant was going to get up to in his solo career than the same band that once made songs like Whole Lotta Love and When the Levee Breaks. John Bonham's death may have been the moment where Led Zeppelin died, but when you listen to this record, the band that came up with something like Dazed and Confused had left a long time ago.