Stephen Thomas Erlewine (All Music Guide)

Page and Plant's long-awaited reunion wasn't the blockbuster success it was predicted to be, but then again, they didn't play by the rules. Instead of re-recording their most famous material, the duo chose some of the most challenging and diverse Led Zeppelin material and wrote three originals to match. No Quarter doesn't celebrate Page and Plant's title of the Kings of Bombast; it focuses on their role in popularizing ethnic music, from Arabia to the Celtic islands. So, it might not thrill fans of "Whole Lotta Love," but there's more invention on No Quarter than the standard reunion album. And, from the sounds of "City Don't Cry," "Yallah," and "Wonderful One," the partnership between the two remains fruitful.

(Amazon.com)

Mid-priced 14 track collection includes one bonus track, 'Wah Wah' that is unavailable on the US pressing which is more expensive now than the import! Highlights include, 'Battle Of Evermore', 'Four Sticks', 'Gallows Pole', 'Kashmir', 'No Quarter', 'Since I've Been Loving You' and many more!

James Swift (Amazon.co.uk)

Fourteen years of speculation from their fans and occasional sniping between the two former members ended when Jimmy Page and Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin reconvened their former musical partnership to produce No Quarter. Having long resisted offers from MTV to reform to do an Unplugged show, they finally accepted as part of a deal that also allowed them to visit Morocco to record new material. The album combines the results of both of these projects. The Led Zeppelin material features new arrangements and new instrumentation, including strings, Egyptian musicians and the haunting vocals of British-Asian star Najma Akhtar. The selection of songs is notable for including some of their lesser-known classics and all of the re-arrangements are well thought-out and executed. "Nobody's Fault But Mine" and "No Quarter" are almost completely revamped, and the latter in particular sounds terrific. The four new tracks are not always fully developed as songs--the three recorded with native musicians in Morocco, of which "Yallah" is a highlight, appear to be tantalising fragments of longer jams. Nevertheless, they are always interesting. The fourth track, "Wonderful One", is a moving ballad on which Plant's voice, which throughout the album appears better than ever before, gets yet another chance to shine.

(CD Universe)

Full title: No Quarter: Jimmy Page & Robert Plant Unledded. Personnel includes: Jimmy Page (acoustic & electric guitars, mandolin); Robert Plant, Najma Akhtar (vocals); Porl Thompson (guitar, banjo); Jim Sutherland (mandolin, bodhran); Nigel Eaton (hurdy gurdy); Ed Shearmur (Hammond B-3); Charlie Jones (bass, percussion); Michael Lee (drums, percussion); Hossam Ramzy, Ibrahim Abdel Khaliq (percussion); Abdel Salam Kheir (oud); London Metropolitan Orchestra, Hassan El Arfaoui, El Mahjoub El Mathoun, Abdelhak Eddahmane. Recorded in Marrakesh, Morocco; Bron-Y-Aur, Wales; London, England. "Kashmir" was nominated for a 1996 Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal.

In this age of unplugged it was inevitable that Led Zeppelin would return in some shape or form to reclaim a legacy which fused folky musings with harder leanings. On NO QUARTER, Robert Plant and Jimmy Page are joined by a core group of musicians featuring the Cure's Porl Thompson, The London Metropolitan Orchestra, and a multitude of Middle Eastern musicians playing exotic instruments. The result is a fascinating blend of Zeppelin classics and three new songs. "Nobody's Fault But Mine" and "Friends" are given a slightly altered interpretation while the more recent "Yallah," "City Don't Cry," and "Wonderful One" revel in multicultural trappings. "Yallah" and "City Don't Cry" are both steeped in chanting in a foreign tongue while "Wonderful One" sounds like an outtake from HOUSES OF THE HOLY. Robert Plant and Jimmy Page's world music approach casts a positive sheen on the remainder of this collection of Zeppelin songs which include exotic versions of "The Battle Of Evermore," "Gallows Pole," and "Kashmir.

David Cavanagh (Q Magazine, October 1994)

The best Led Zeppelin music smacked of serious air miles. From the cobra-stuffed casbahs of Kashmir to the benighted delta of When The Levee Breaks, from Houses Of The Holy to the big wooden horses of Achilles Last Stand, they certainly got around. Not many rock albums require an atlas as a secondary purchase, but the semper-O.T.T. Zeppelin's did, and, be advised, this near 80-minute burst of electro-acoustic uber-Zep is even more peripatetic than Physical Graffiti. Expectations of a rum old Pagey'n'Planty fireside-faves MTV rake-in have proved mercifully groundless. Instead, we're faced with a curious, new, bombastic, post-Peter Gabriel species of non-groinal World Music Zeppelin. The album is hit-and-miss, but what a concept -taking in Morocco, Egypt, Ireland and European folk. It will please no crowd entirely, but it does stand up, as far as spirit of adventure goes, with prime, hubristic Zeppelin. Four of the 14 songs are new, none of them rock songs. All were inspired by a visit to Marrakech. The first of them, Yallah, is startling, with Page's heavily distorted electric guitar splurging over a relentless, chattering percussion backdrop. City Don't Cry, while warm-ish, sounds a bit like the Penguin Cafe Orchestra. Wonderful One is good, a sort of Africanised Rain Song. And Wah Wah is so resolutely ethnic it would sell 145 copies, maximum, in Britain if Page and Plant weren't involved. The classics (broadcast recently on MTV as Unledded) are no less surprising. With John Paul Jones not invited (to his reported chagrin), the musicians include Porl Thompson of The Cure on keyboards, an Egyptian ensemble, an orchestra, sundry folk musicians, Plant's rhythm section and a banjo player. No song is quite as you remember it. Nobody's Fault But Mine (great) and No Quarter (terrible) have had their tunes reworked. Since I've Been Loving You (impressive) gets an orchestra. And Kashmir, 12-plus minutes of which finish the album, has the lot: rock band, orchestra and African musicians all pummelling away. The drummer, incidentally, is an uncanny John Bonham soundalike called Michael Lee, once of Scarborough's Little Angels. How odd: on this surprisingly forward-looking Return To Castle Zep, only the drumming sounds the way you'd expect it.

© Frank Steven Groen