Apart from Achilles and Nobody's Fault, which sound great, the other songs seemed to have a strange mix. Candy Store Rock for example, which I've ways assumed I hated until I listened again recently. It's not the song that bugs me, it's the weird mix. The bass and drums are Ok, but the delay and reverb on the guitar and vocals are just too much. The guitar is separated to far off to one side. I imagined this song having a "drier" mix like III or HOTH had, and realized it's a pretty catchy song with a mean guitar riff.
Plant's vocals seem to have a deep hall reverb on them that almost sounds like wind blowing in places. Page's guitar fills that jump in and out on the sides of the balance also have a deep reverb that pushes the sound back in the mix. Very noticeable on Hots On For Nowhere.
Bonham does excellent drum work on Royal Orleans, but the drums sit low in the mix and don't have that dynamic sound he had on songs like In My Time, Night Flight, or The Ocean. I think overall this album simply lost that layered, dynamic tone they had previously.