The Zep is a band for which I have a sort of grudging respect; all their albums have had a few incandescent moments surrounded by great heaping gobs of overblown silliness, but those incandescent moments have been definitive rock-and-roll. The problem has always seemed to me that Jimmy Page (who is the group, for all intents) is either afflicted with a cynical contempt for his audience (justifiable, I'm afraid) or, less likely, blessed with extremely fitful good taste (there are too many moments when the only reaction to his music has to be "he must know better"). (p. 111)

Steve Simels, in Stereo Review (copyright © 1973 Ziff-Davis Publishing Company), November, 1973.