ZZ Top's First Album may not be perfectly polished, but it does establish their sound, attitude, and quirks. Simply put, it's a dirty little blues-rock record, filled with...
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With their second album, Rio Grande Mud, ZZ Top uses the sound they sketched out on their debut as a blueprint, yet tweak it in slight but important ways. The first is...
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Tres Hombres is the record that brought ZZ Top their first Top Ten record, making them stars in the process. It couldn't have happened to a better record. ZZ Top finally got...
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In 1987, Warner Bros. paired ZZ Top's first major hit record, Tres Hombres (1973), with its follow-up, Fandango, a half-live/half-studio affair, onto a single cassette,...
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On Tejas, ZZ Top countrified the bluesy posture of their previous albums, resulting in a slight detour between the madcap spirit of Fandango and the psychedelic strut of...
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After the tepid Tejas and something of a hiatus, ZZ Top consolidated their strengths and returned to form with Deguello in 1979. This was paired with its follow-up, El Loco...
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El Loco follows through on the streamlined, jet-engine boogie-rock of Deguello, but kicking all the ingredients up a notch. That means that the grooves are getting a little...
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With its synth-heavy mixes and groovy pop tunes, this album let true fans down with its "babes and beards" approach, but it gained the band an entirely new audience with its...
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ZZ Top had reached the top of the charts before, but that didn't make their sudden popularity in 1983 any more predictable. It wasn't that they were just popular -- they...
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Like precious few bands from the '70s whose best work is mummified daily thanks to classic rock radio, ZZ Top just keeps rolling on into the next decade. There's much to...
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ZZ Top closed out their tenure with London records in late 1977 with The Best of ZZ Top, a basic but terrific ten-song retrospective of highlights from their first five...
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Half live and half studio, this recording includes the band's first top 40 hit, "Tush," and a scorching rendition of "Blue Jean Blues." Not enough to bolster the record, but...
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Blessed with their first full-fledged hit album, ZZ Top followed it up with Fandango, a record split between a side of live tracks and a side of new studio cuts. In a way,...
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Before they sweated their image down to beards, babes and hot rods, ZZ Top were a down 'n' dirty blues-rock trio with a bonafide hot guitar player in Billy Gibbons. On this...
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ZZ Top returned after an extended layoff in late 1979 with Deguello, their best album since 1973's Tres Hombres. During their time off, ZZ Top didn't change much -- hell,...
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ZZ Top's long-awaited return to the blues finally arrived in 1996, well over a decade after they abandoned their simple three-chord boogie for a synth and drum...
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Since Rhino released an exhaustive four-disc ZZ Top box in October 2003, some may question the appearance of a double-disc retrospective in June 2004, a mere eight months...
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