ZZ Top’s Mescalero almost got by me for three reasons: 1) It’s in the Z section at the record store (and who goes to the Zs unless you’re boning up your Zappa collection); 2) Around the same time, Warner Bothers released Chrome, Smoke & BBQ, a four-disc, 80-track box set that chronicles the band’s golden years; 3) RCA was a little more than quiet about its release.
Even as ZZ Top lost a few fair-weather fans since MTV stopped playing their videos, they still managed to carry on for over 50 years as the longest running band with all original members. More significantly, their forward-thinking approach to making music assimilated with a gritty blues-based undertow in gainfully intact on 2003’s Mescalero.
It’s not always pretty and manager/producer Bill Ham, who manned the boards for the band from 1970 through 1996, is sorely missed (Billy Gibbons may be a great blues guitarist, but his ear for production lacks clear objectivity). Frank Beard’s drums sound over processed or are buried in the mix, surfacing irregularly during soiled and silly jams like “Me So Stupid,” “What Is It Kid” and “Busted,” while the wail of Gibbon’s guitar succumbs to bits of excessive distortion at times.
Though the mix often wallows in a mushy cloud, cuts like the country-soaked “Goin’ So Good” and “What Would You Do” give the record a credible and wobbly edge. Some of us used to envision a day when ZZ Top would make an album on par with Tres Hombres. The dream remains alive until the Top stops spinning.
~ Shawn Perry
