This means familiar songs, like "Four Sticks" and "Battle of Evermore," rock out; albeit, also with plenty of gypsy violin coloring the grooves. This work strikes a good balance. It's not a slavish recreation of the originals, yet it's not too overly ambitious, like the time a reggae group Rasta-d up Pink Floyd a while back. In its best moments, Pompeii Sessions will cause you to hear FM classic rock staples in a whole new light, and that's never a bad thing.

Of course, it never hurts to have topnotch source material. Whenever you start with songs like "Dancing Days" and "Kashmir," it's awfully tough to go wrong. With this approach, In the Light of Led Zeppelin can ramble on as long as they like.