The more I listen to ZZ Top over the years, the more I realize
\nthat going through their albums is not unlike riding a
\nrollercoaster. Billy Gibbons and crew came off of the low that was
\nTejas<\/i> with one of their best albums,
\nDeguello<\/i>, in 1979. One had to wonder whether their follow-up
\nalbum would continue to see ZZ Top soar, or if they would come
\nbarreling down the hill with another half-hearted effort.<\/p>\n
\nEl Loco<\/i>, ZZ Top’s 1981 release (and seventh album overall),
\nregrettably didn’t reflect the musical recharging of batteries that<\/p>\n
Deguello<\/i> did, and is a disappointment when compared to their
\nprevious effort, but this disc isn’t totally without merit.<\/p>\n
The two songs off of
\nEl Loco<\/i> which get significant airplay on classic rock radio
\n— “Tube Snake Boogie” and “Pearl Necklace” — are, unfortunately,
\nthe best songs on this disc. Continuing in the blues-boogie vein
\nwhich became their bread and butter, ZZ Top drive these songs home
\ncourtesy of an infectious bass line from Dusty Hill, Gibbons’s
\nfluid guitar work and a solid backbeat from Frank Beard. In a
\nsense, one can’t be too unhappy with these tracks, since they do
\ncarry on the successes that ZZ Top forged on
\nDeguello<\/i> with songs like “Cheap Sunglasses,” and they do
\nprove to be worthy follow-ups.<\/p>\n
Possibly the one track which will be overlooked on El Loco
\nbecause of its quirkiness is “Heaven, Hell Or Houston” — featuring
\na creepy yet funny spoken vocal line delivered in a mock Vincent
\nPrice style. Again, one needs only to go back to
\nDeguello<\/i> and “Manic Mechanic” to see the bloodline of this
\ntrack — but there’s something unique about this particular song
\nwhich makes it one you’ll find yourself going back to time and time
\nagain. Namely, it’s fun to listen to, blues purity be damned for
\njust three minutes.<\/p>\n
If only the rest of
\nEl Loco<\/i> were as infectious. Granted, the bulk of this disc
\nisn’t as tired-sounding as
\nTejas<\/i> was, but it’s hardly the level of musical success that
\nfans had come to expect from ZZ Top. Tracks like “Leila,” “I Wanna
\nDrive You Home” and, to an extent, “Don’t Tease Me” all fail to hit
\nthe mark. Are they bad tracks? I wouldn’t go that far. Instead,
\nthey have the atmosphere of being throw-away songs — tracks which
\nmight have been written for other albums but were not deemed to be
\nstrong enough to make the cut. of (Like other discs in
\nThe ZZ Top Sixpack<\/i>, which is where I have my copy of
\nEl Loco<\/i>, I’m willing to concede that the absolutely crappy
\nremix of these albums could be more than a minor contribution to
\nthis feeling.)<\/p>\n
And yet, there is the occasional pang of questioning I feel when
\nlistening to this disc. I have to wonder what it could have been
\nhad there been some stronger work on
\nEl Loco<\/i>. I mean, “Don’t Tease Me” isn’t a terrible track,
\nand could have been something to watch had it been given a little
\nmore attention (especially in the mix). “Party On The Patio” is the
\nkind of track which could start impromptu keggers in the street,
\nbut it’s so far buried on this disc that its power is somewhat
\nblunted by the time you do get to it.<\/p>\n
\nEl Loco<\/i> might not be ZZ Top’s worst album, and it does
\nsuggest that the band learned some lessons with the success of
\nDeguello<\/i>. But it also doesn’t hold a candle to some of their
\nbest work, suggesting that not all their lessons had been learned
\non
\nTejas<\/i>. Fortunately, another extended break was coming up for
\nthe band – one which would lead to the album that would vault them
\ninto superstar level.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26354,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5723],"rating":[5614],"class_list":["post-37584","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-zz-top","rating-rating-c-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37584"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37584\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37584"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}