On their second album, the Led Zeppelin focus more on the hard-rock sound, the style that they have helped define. There is almost nothing to indicate that we have come from a transition from blues-rock, nor do we find hardly anything that deviates from the path of hard rock (no pop-rock a la ‘Good Times, Bad Times’ or oriental sounds to the ‘Black Mountain Side’). We are facing a group that already knows what it has to do and knows how to do it perfectly.
For this album, we have the unforgettable ‘Whole Lotta Love’, one of his most brutal songs with one of his most charismatic riffs. The archetypal hard rock song. Impressive in every way, and every time we hear Page roam his neck after repeating “You wanna whole lotta love” it’s like an adrenaline rush.
The instrumental intermission with Plant’s orgasmic screams may be dispensable, but the return to the main melody is another brutal moment, as well as that false ending where Plant ends up singing almost a cappella and lengthens that “Looooooooooove” until the rest of the group enters. again.
Listen below to Plant’s Isolated Vocals for “Whole Lotta Love.”