In Through the Out Door

The band rehearsed from September 1978 and then recorded in three weeks, in November and December, at Polar Studios in Stockholm, which belonged to ABBA. The album was mixed at Page's home studio at Plumpton. Most of it was composed by Jones and Plant, because Page and Bonham often missed rehearsals. Jones said later that there were two distinct camps by then and that he and Plant were in the relatively clean one. Jones was inspired by a Yamaha GX-1 synthesiser he had just bought. Page maintained that they still recorded as a full band. Jones co-wrote six of the seven songs, and South Bound Saurez and All My Love are the only original Led Zeppelin songs Page did not contribute to. Bonham has no writing credit on the album.

In the Evening opens with Page using a violin bow and a Gizmotron for the drone. Fool in the Rain combines a samba rhythm with a rock tune, over a Purdie shuffle from Bonham. Hot Dog grew from warm-up covers of Elvis Presley and Ricky Nelson, and All My Love was written by Plant and Jones in honor of Plant's son Karac. Wearing and Tearing, Ozone Baby and Darlene were recorded in the same sessions and held back for Coda. The sleeve was a plain brown paper bag in six variants, with inner artwork that colored when wet.

It reached number one in its second week on the Billboard 200, reportedly selling 1.7 million copies within weeks, and stayed there for seven weeks. Charles M. Young in Rolling Stone was negative, Nick Kent of NME said it was no epitaph, and Robert Christgau thought it the band's best since Houses of the Holy. Neil McCormick ranked it their worst in 2014. Pitchfork's Mark Richardson called it their most singular record, if far from their best. Page said in 2004 that the band had wanted to make something hard-hitting and riff-based next, but never did.