After much delay, the new ZZ Top CD was released this week. I picked it up yesterday, and have been listening to it today. My review follows:
Billy, Dusty, and Frank are back after a 3-year hiatus with "Mescalero", their new CD which feature 16 (yes, sixteen) songs (and a bonus, unlabeled song after track #16) which comprises easily over an hour of music (I believe that this makes "Mescalero" the longest ZZ album ever made).
It seems with every album, Billy adds one more Expandora (his choice of fuzz boxes) to his effects chain. The result with most of the tracks on the CD is that his rhythm guitar most of the time seems like mush...it all just runs together and it's hard to actually hear anything but a lot of fuzz. To make it even worse, Billy now likes to tune down...even sometimes down 2 whole steps (to "C"), and that just makes the rhythm guitar most of the time sound even mushier.
This dosen't occur on every track on this CD, but it occurs often enough...and it's a shame, because Billy is such a great guitarist he doesn't need to rely on all the fuzz. I suppose he figures that all that fuzz is going to be the ZZ sound from now on.
Fortunately, he turns off most of the fuzz when he goes into his lead guitar mode...and the leads on most of the songs here he just flat tears up. He even kicks out the wah pedal during one of his leads (haven't heard that since "Beer Drinkers and Hell Raisers"). Billy of course handles most of the vocals too, and his trademark Texas drawl can be heard throughout the CD...you won't mistake his voice for anyone elses, that's for sure.
As far as the songs go...you would think a CD with 16 (actually 17) songs on it would have a lot of clunkers on it. Not so. Personally, I could find only 3 songs that just didn't really belong on the CD ("Goin' So Good", "Que Lastima", and the unlabeled song after "Liquor"). As far as the good songs go, there's plenty of them on here...none of them will probably wind up on the "Classic ZZ Top Song List", but they are some pretty good tunes in their own right.
Some of these include: "Mescalero", "Buck Nekkid", "Me So Stupid", "Piece", "Punk Ass Boyfriend", "Stackin' Paper", "What Is It Kid", and "Tramp".
If you are a "true" ZZ Top fan, you will enjoy this one much better than their last CD ("XXX"). Is it as good as "Rhythmeen"? At first listen, no...but I'm sure the more I listen to it the more it will grow on me. If you are a "Eliminator-era" ZZ Top fan, you're probably not going to like this.
Out of 5 stars, Ace gives this one 3 1/2. It's not a great ZZ Top CD, but it's pretty good and a marked improvement over their last release.
On a final note, it's great to see that Dusty has won his battle with Hepatitis and that ZZ Top continues to rock over 30 years after they started. Why this band is NOT in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is beyond me.
Look for some more new CD reviews coming soon.
