I had listened to every Led Zeppelin album so many times by the age of 14 that I went from playing their records constantly to not listening to them at all again for many, many years. Decades even. It’s not like I ever stopped loving Led Zeppelin, it’s just that I overdid it. Like eating the same thing every day for years, even something awesome like Stouffer’s macaroni and cheese, it simply gets tired. Until the new reissues started coming out last summer, the only Led Zeppelin album that I actually owned on CD was Physical Graffiti.

Like many of you reading this, I got massively into those remastered albums. On a good stereo system they sound quite wonderful. I’ve played “When the Levee Breaks” from Led Zeppelin IV on repeat for hours on end on full blast. (I am a bad neighbor, true, but it’s as addictive as crack, that song.) Of all the 2014 and 2015 editions, it was the three-disc expanded release of Coda, their odds-n-sods 1982 swansong, that I was looking forward to the most, not the least reason being that it’s the only one that I never owned, and had never actually even heard all the way through. In other words, an entirely new Led Zeppelin album. Lucky me. What a fun experience to have, right?

The expanded 3 disc deluxe Coda is well worth your attention, rock snob readers. Let me count a few of the ways…

In some of the interviews Jimmy Page has given to publicize the most recent (and final) spate of Led Zeppelin releases (Presence, In Through The Out Door and Coda), he mentions that although Coda was in fact, a bit of a “contractual obligation album” (as well as an anti-bootlegger move), he knew that they had the stunning John Bonham drum solo “Bonzo’s Montreux” (with electronic treatments added later by Page) as the centerpiece, so he was confident that it would all hold together as a coherent listening experience. Even if that is only partially true—it’s all over the place—Coda is still pretty amazing. Unreleased Led Zeppelin tracks are not exactly plentiful—I’m certainly not complaining—but it’s a stylistic mishmash. And this is in no way a bad thing!

Here’s the rollicking instrumental “St. Tristan’s Sword,” which was recorded during the sessions for Led Zeppelin III in 1970. It comes from the same session that produced “Gallow’s Pole” and you’ll note a similar drum sound there:
 

 
The punky, propulsive rockabilly blues of “Sugar Mama” was recorded at Olympic Studios during the sessions that became Led Zeppelin. “Baby Come On Home,” on the original release of Coda, is from that same session:
 

 
Coda‘s bonus material also contains recordings made during Jimmy Page and Robert Plant’s 1972 trip to India, where they performed a version of “Four Sticks” (titled “Four Hands”) with the Bombay Orchestra.
 

 
Here’s an exotic take on “Friends” recorded with the Bombay Orchestra:
 

 
“If It Keeps on Raining” is an early take on “When the Levee Breaks” recorded on November 11, 1970 at Island Studios, London and engineered by Andy Johns.
 

 
And finally, a Led Zeppelin oddity, a Japanese TV commercial for their first album. With “Jimmy Pagi,” “Robert Planto,” kawaii (cute) John Paul Jones and John Bonham in their only TV spot. Plus a promo film for “Communication Breakdown.”