Depending on how you look at it, Led Zeppelin or “Led Zeppelin I” is either one of the most intimidating or inspiring pieces of work in pop music. When it was released in 1969, Jimmy Page was the oldest member of the band, having just turned 25; Plant and Bonham were 20, and John Paul Jones was 22. Other important and famous bands have started out that young (or even younger), and it was of course common back then. And, sure, these were all guys who had been working and were, in some capacity, veterans already — particularly Page, who had worked extensively as a session musician before a stint with the Yardbirds directly prior to forming Led Zeppelin. The fact remains: Led Zeppelin came together, one of those mystical situations that happens so rarely where each of its four members were so crucial to the fabric of the band, so revered for what each of them did, and they arrived with a debut album that already had the plot all figured out. Here, traceable to other genres (as well as, again, allegedly other people’s songwriting) yet also out of nowhere, was Led Zeppelin’s sound. A lot of bands might’ve gotten famous when they were still essentially kids, but Led Zeppelin’s on the much shorter list of bands who got famous when they were still essentially kids, and then went on to have the sort of massive, genre-altering and -creating impact they did.

All that being said, and fully acknowledging that Led Zeppelin is one of the most accomplished debut albums ever, there were even better things to come with the subsequent numbered albums. This is, admittedly, where it likely comes down to some degree of bias. Led Zeppelin is the band’s most consistently and overtly devoted to the blues, a side of the band that got more interesting when they’d infuse it into sprawling, mutated versions like “In My Time Of Dying,” or the massive stomp of Led Zeppelin II. The debut is, as any of the first four albums are, littered with iconic songs. Personally, I’ve always been into “Dazed And Confused” or “Good Times Bad Times,” but have always found the later classic Zeppelin songs surpassed them. On the other side of things, “Babe I’m Gonna Leave You” has always been, and remains, one of my favorites by the band, and “Your Time Is Gonna Come” is one of the most overlooked songs in their catalog. It’s a mellower moment that still has some movement to it, and reaches emotional peaks that make the bluesier stuff like “You Shook Me” or “I Can’t Quit You Baby” sort of drag in comparison.

When it comes down to it, though, this is nitpicking based on the elements of Zeppelin that I find most interesting years later. Led Zeppelin and everything else left on this list is where you get into the territory of essential listening, which probably goes without saying, but is true.