ZZ Top Album: “Afterburner”

This album got them into trouble with some fans. Some said it sounds to close to everything that was going on at the time. Some said they were trying to fit in with the keyboard crazed late 80s. I think this album is pure fun. Great songs like "Sleeping Bag", "Planet Of Women", "Velcro Fly", "Rough Boy" and my personal favorite "Stages!" If you claim there are no heavy guitar tracks think again. Check out "Can't Stop Rockin'" Point being, no I don't want every ZZ Top album to sound like this one, but for the time it worked! Not as raw as their 70s and early 80s stuff. That polished sound my scare a few people. Worth a listen anyway.

Afterburner has nothing to do with ZZ's blues roots or why they began playing music back in the 60's. Nope, it's all updated rythms and synths, double entendres and calculated hooks. That said, the album is a ton of fun! It's a bit hard to say whether they were selling out or just noodling around with new technology (or maybe some of both). And I don't give a rats ... about why they turned in this direction, just glad they did, even if just for a while. Party record: yes indeed! Record with brains: hung jury. Gibbons' guitar solos are still fantastic if not featured nearly as frequently as on previous outings. Absoulutely a kick ... solo on "Rough Boy," ... near one of my faves of all time. Also, this is one of the only times on the album where the fun lets up... only to let it air out for a few minutes! But with other titles such as "Woke Up with Wood," "Can't Stop Rockin'" and "Planet of Women" you prettymuch know exactly in which direction this material is headed. Yep, "I Got the Six" parts I, II, and III. Now go pick it up if you haven't already!

The boys from Texas followed up their smash album "Eliminator" with a similar sounding album that features far fewer good songs. The burner "Sleeping Bag" opens things well enough, but it is not until you get to track four and the ballad "Rough Boy" that you get another first rate song. Of the rest, only the ready made dance hit "Velcro Fly" makes any impression. It is probably no accident that after this album, ZZ Top turned back in a more blues oriented direction that defined them in the 70s.

I was in junior high when this album came out, and I played my cassette copy to death back then. I thought the song "Stages" was the coolest song I had ever heard. I recently bought the CD after not listening to the album in over 10 years. As much as I loved it in 1985, the music has not aged well at all. The heavy synthesized sound that was great back then sounds uninteresting and bland today. However, the CD does bring back a lot of memories. If you grew up during the 80s and want to return to those days (at least in spirit), go ahead and pick this up. Otherwise, don't bother.

Back when I first bought this, I would have given it 4 stars but like a lot of artists did during that decade, they opted for a "modern" sound which is fine--for that time. Now I don't listen to it at all. "Stages" and "Delirious" are still good, but on the rest of the songs the pounding electronic rythms and synthesizers drown everything else out. Their earlier albums hold up better because they don't use as much studio B.S. to flesh their songs out.