Back when Whitesnake was riding high on Zeppola singles like "Still of the Night," Robert Plant snickeringly referred to the band's frontman as David Coverversion. So when the word came down that Jimmy Page, despairing over getting Plant aboard a Led Zeppelin reunion tour, was forming a band with Whitesnake's David Coverdale, you could almost hear the critics sharpening their insults in anticipation.

Well, the joke's on them. Coverdale/Page may not be the second coming of Led Zeppelin, but it's close enough that only the most curmudgeonly would deny the band its due. It helps that Page has finally found his way back to the idiosyncratic touches that marked his work with the mighty Zep; who else could have transformed the blues riff at the beginning of "Shake My Tree" into something resembling a muezzin's call? Even better is the way he plays off other instruments, deftly exploiting the bowed bass in "Easy Does It" or reveling in the contrast between the old-time bounce of his guitar and the thoroughly modern stomp of Denny Carmassi's drums in "Take Me for a Little While." Frankly, he hasn't sounded this inspired since Presence.

Still, the real surprise is Coverdale, whose bluesy howl has never been put to better use than against Page's guitar. Granted, the combination doesn't always click – "Take a Look at Yourself" is too much like a bloated Whitesnake ballad to really fit, while "Feeling Hot" seems better suited to the likes of Great White – and there are moments in "Absolution Blues" when Coverdale reverts to his Plant-impersonator act.

But on the whole, Coverdale/Page is almost embarrassingly enjoyable, delivering enough in the way of blues-based hooks and heavy guitar crunch to be rock's guiltiest pleasure since ... well, since Whitesnake's "Still of the Night." And if that isn't justice, what is? (RS 654)

J.D. CONSIDINE