Say this much about ZZ Top: they\u2019re not content being seen as an \u201coldies\u201d band, expected to only tour and crank out the same songs they\u2019ve been playing for decades.<\/p>\n
Their record sales might not match what they were pulling down in the \u201980s, and their output slowed to an absolute crawl as the years passed, but the trio of guitarist\/lead vocalist Billy Gibbons, bassist Dusty Hill and drummer Frank Beard kept on cranking out new material. Some of it was good; other releases were forgettable.<\/p>\n
La Futura<\/i>, the 2012 release from ZZ Top, not only now serves as the final album released prior to Hill\u2019s death in 2021, but was the first studio effort from the \u201clil\u2019 ol\u2019 band from Texas\u201d in nearly a decade. While it picks up where their previous effort Mescalero<\/i> left off, it doesn\u2019t quite capture the same essence as its predecessor had.<\/i><\/p>\n
Let\u2019s get the biggest complaint out of the way first: 10 songs and just under 40 minutes\u2019 worth of music after waiting for nine years between albums? The future feels far, far too short.<\/i><\/p>\n
Then again, seeing that the tracks contained therein don\u2019t necessarily have the staying power that some of ZZ Top\u2019s earlier works have had over the years, maybe it turned out to be a good thing that the album wasn\u2019t padded with half-processed filler material. For every \u201cFlyin\u2019 High\u201d\u2014arguably the best track on this collection\u2014there are songs that, once the last note fades out, will leave the listener\u2019s collective conscience, such as \u201cHeartache In Blue\u201d and \u201cBig Shiny Nine.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n
La Futura<\/i> isn\u2019t the easiest disc to get into; truth be told, the last time I listened to this one a few years ago, I hated it. But I guess I could have said the same thing about Mescalero<\/i>, a disc that I had to warm up to\u2014and, when I listened to this one using headphones, I found myself becoming more accustomed to the disc.<\/i><\/p>\n
Tracks like \u201cConsumption,\u201d \u201cIt\u2019s Too Easy Manana\u201d and \u201cFlyin\u2019 High\u201d all suggest that ZZ Top still have gas in the tank, and the classic car is still running\u2014even if there are signs of rust appearing on the bodywork. But there is just an \u201cX\u201d factor missing from this one that keeps it from going from a \u201cgood\u201d album to a \u201cgreat\u201d one\u2014and, if you think about it, that\u2019s something that ZZ Top has been chasing almost their entire career. Perhaps if Hill\u2019s vocals had been more utilized, that would have been just enough to push this one over the precipice\u2014he does seem woefully underutilized on this disc. And, let\u2019s be honest, Gibbons\u2019s vocals sound more strained than ever.<\/i><\/p>\n
Whatever the case, La Futura<\/i> does capture the raw grittiness of early ZZ Top while trying to push the sound into the modern day. Had there been more exciting songwriting and performances captured on this one, it could have been a disc that could have been mentioned in the same breath as Tres Hombres<\/i> or Eliminator<\/i>. Unfortunately, it falls short of that goal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34595,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5723],"rating":[5614],"class_list":["post-46443","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\/46443","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=46443"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46443\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=46443"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=46443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}