Wonder what the Greeks would've made about participating in one's own "glowing praise," as ol' Bobby Plant does here. His partner in crime is none other than torturous Tori Amos, who has already successfully drawn all the lifeblood out of Nirvana and R.E.M. songs. This prickly pair pick "Down by the Seaside," the worst song in Zeppelin's catalogue, to mangle. Somehow they manage to make it ten times worse than the original, stretching it out to a lugubrious, unbearably slow seven minutes and 49 seconds. Who do they think they are-ÄVanilla Fudge? Can't somebody convince Kate Bush to go to Tori's house and give her the "You are not me" speech once and for all and shame her back into being a heavy-metal singer?
With too few exceptions, Encomium is rote and unimaginative, simply note-for-note emulations of overly familiar material. And if hearing Zeppelin songs performed as if they were Sheryl Crow and Hootie and the Blowfish originals is your incentive for buying this, you probably never liked Zeppelin, anyway. And never will. Which means Atlantic's greedy little plan of exposing the next generation of record buyers to Led Zeppelin has backfired.--Serene Dominic
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