Listening to yet another in a series of Czech string quartets' interpretations of rock & roll legends, Led Zeppelin fanatics might howl at the prospect of having their heroes' hardcore rock reduced to background music suitable for bookstores. And, true, much of it is boring and repetitive, particularly overly atmospheric arrangements of tunes like "Going to California." Yet famed dramatic numbers like "Stairway to Heaven" seem perfectly suited for this sort of by-the-numbers mini-orchestra arrangement. The Neil Young disc ...
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Listening to yet another in a series of Czech string quartets' interpretations of rock & roll legends, Led Zeppelin fanatics might howl at the prospect of having their heroes' hardcore rock reduced to background music suitable for bookstores. And, true, much of it is boring and repetitive, particularly overly atmospheric arrangements of tunes like "Going to California." Yet famed dramatic numbers like "Stairway to Heaven" seem perfectly suited for this sort of by-the-numbers mini-orchestra arrangement. The Neil Young disc in this series benefits from the use of an acoustic guitar and, while it's not credited, there's a blistering electric (or is that just a synth effect?) and creepy vocal on "Whole Lotta Love," which is bizarre but at least conveys the appropriate intensity. Then it goes overboard and becomes just plain noisy. In small doses, this is quirky and interesting in spots, but at two discs, this is more appropriate to cure insomnia than to be entertaining to rock fans. One would have sufficed. ~ Jonathan Widran, Rovi
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