Led Zeppelin III (Deluxe Edition)

After writing and recording their first two albums in quick succession and relentlessly touring the world, the members of Led Zeppelin took months off at the start of 1970, with Jimmy Page and Robert Plant settling into the now famous Bron-Yr-Aur cottage in Wales to write the third album. The bucolic environs led to an increased acoustic emphasis, heard on “Bron-Y-Aur Stomp,” “Tangerine,” and “That’s the Way.” Several key electric Zep anthems—“Immigrant Song,” “Celebration Day”—became concert favorites. This album is often considered the one that revealed the band’s true complexity and depth, despite being overshadowed by the heavy metal riffs of *II* and the classic stature of *IV*. For the 2014 deluxe version, Jimmy Page remastered the album and added nine studio outtakes, including three previously unheard compositions: “Jennings Farm Blues” (an instrumental forerunner of “Bron-Y-Aur Stomp”), “Bathroom Sound” (an instrumental version of “Out on the Tiles”), and a take on the blues classics “Keys to the Highway/Trouble in Mind.” Alternate mixes of “Immigrant Song,” “Since I’ve Been Loving You,” and “That’s the Way” are equally rewarding.

Led Zeppelin reinvented the vocabulary of rock music many times throughout their decade-long career, but their most radical burst of creativity came straight out of the gate.

Check out our album review of Artist's Led Zeppelin III (Reissue) on Rolling Stone.com.