Years after their untimely breakup, it’s not surprising that
\nsome people would do anything to try and recapture the feeling of
\nthe magic that was Led Zeppelin. Following John Bonham’s death in
\n1980 and the dissolution of the band, diehard fans grabbed at any
\nstraw they could which was Zeppelin-related in the hopes of feeling
\nthat same excitement.<\/p>\n
But guitarist Jimmy Page had not had a terrible amount of
\npost-Zeppelin success. He had scored the movie
\nDeath Wish II<\/i>, and did a nice set at the A.R.M.S. Concert
\nfor Ronnie Lane. But when it came time for Page to take the
\ndriver’s seat again in terms of a band, the end result hit the wall
\nlike a NASCAR racer out of control.<\/p>\n
The Firm was another attempt at a supergroup which was unable to
\nlive up to its own hype. Pairing Page with former Bad Company
\nvocalist (at least at the time) Paul Rodgers seemed like a good
\nidea on paper — after all, their two former bands were label-mates
\non Zeppelin’s Swan Song imprint. Add in the rhythm section of
\nbassist Tony Franklin and drummer Chris Slade (who was better known
\nfor his work with Manfred Mann at the time), and you had a group
\nwhich seemed to hold promise.<\/p>\n
Alas,
\nThe Firm<\/i>, the group’s debut release, fails on many levels.
\nThe songwriting is poor, the overall sound is surprisingly muddy,
\nthe energy level is almost non-existent, and — the cardinal sin
\nfor many people — the group sounded neither like Zeppelin nor Bad
\nCompany.<\/p>\n
On that last note, it really is unfair to have expected Page or
\nRodgers to have tried a carbon-copy of their past successes. After
\nall, those two bands were now in their collective past, and they
\nwanted a chance to create a fresh sound for themselves. Fine, I can
\nunderstand that\u2026 if only the sound they created was worth
\nthe effort.<\/p>\n
The biggest problem with
\nThe Firm<\/i> is the sound of the album. Unlike other works Page
\nhas been on, the instrumentation sounds like it’s had layers of
\nsonic grit caked onto the tapes, creating an end result that is
\ndamned hard to listen to for an extended length of time. In terms
\nof Page’s supposed perfectionist manners, this hardly would qualify
\nas acceptable.<\/p>\n
Then there is the music itself. In terms of songwriting,
\nThe Firm<\/i> just doesn’t have any real magic in any of the
\nsongs. Yes, “Radioactive” and “Satisfaction Guaranteed” were minor
\nhits back in the day, and they remain the stand-out tracks on this
\ndisc. But two songs hardly qualify as a legacy – especially when
\nthe remaining seven tracks are so weak. Songs like “Someone To
\nLove,” “Closer,” “Make Or Break” and a lugubrious cover of “You’ve
\nLost That Lovin’ Feeling” come dangerously close to being painful
\nto listen to.<\/p>\n
Part of the problem, as well, is the instrumentation itself.
\nThere is no denying that each musician is a master of their own
\ncraft, but there was just not enough sound coming from these four
\nmen to fill the void. At times, it’s almost like the emptiness is
\nbegging for a second guitar line or a keyboard to burst forth as
\nthe missing puzzle pieces. Alas, they’re not coming.<\/p>\n
The Firm would record one more album together before all
\ninvolved would move on to other projects. The Firm is a disc which
\ndares to suggest that this grouping was doomed from the very
\nbeginning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26636,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[6989],"rating":[11203],"class_list":["post-37883","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-the-firm","rating-rating-d-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37883"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37883\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37883"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}