ZZ Top Album: “Eliminator: Collector's Edition”

"Eliminator" introduced the world to one of rock's most unique sounds from one of rock's most unique bands, ZZ Top. Past albums like "Tres Hombres" or "Deguello" had firmly established the band as a major draw, but it was with this 1983 album that the band first used an appealing blend of technology that was perfectly topped onto their trademark R&B/Delta blues roots.

The vocals and bass of Dusty Hill are as rough as the Texas sand, matched only by that of Billy Gibbons (who was a favorite guitarist of Jimi Hendrix), backboned by Frank Beard's disciplined drumming. All of this makes for a tightly wound musicianship that never suffers from "Eliminator"'s synthesized element. The album spawned several hits, notably 'Legs,' 'Sharp Dressed Man,' and 'Gimme All Your Lovin'. 'Got Me Under Pressure' is just as legendary, being an enduring ZZ Top favorite. The one-of-a-kind 'Thug' meanwhile is a darker tale, and features an incredinbly funky bass texture, while the likes of 'TV Dinners' and the incredibly eye-roll inducing 'I Got the Six' are somewhat less serious, but just as memorable. 'I Need You Tonight' however is surprisingly sympathetic and features some of Gibbons' best guitar work.

Although "Eliminator" became one the 80s most recognizable efforts, it finally gave ZZ Top the worldwide success they'd deserved since the early 70s. It is very much a male-ego album, containing the brilliant arrogance and flashiness that made ZZ Top so great in the first place.

This review is only for the original album since I don't care much about bonus tracks or DVDs, but since you brought it up, I will say that the "bonus" live tracks on disc 1 sound homemade. I can't believe they were included here.

Anyway, to the main course: The original CD release, and even the Eliminator material in the gorgeous "Chrome, Smoke, and BBQ" box set just never did anything for me sound wise. Sure, it's great rock 'n' roll, but the digital mastering didn't do it justice. This remastering changes that. The music comes to life with punch, presence, and transparency - and it was done with no noticeable compression. They even resisted the urge to master it too loudly. This is a remaster that both the average CD buyer and the audiophile will be VERY happy with.

Irespective of what anyone says, this is the ZZ Top album to go for. If it was'nt for this one I might have never shown interest in the band.

This is the first album where extra effort had been made to package the songs, thus reducing the appeal to purists. But for music lovers like me it made the songs better and more appealing.

The thunduring bass and chug a lug drums are the backbone of the album with songs like 'Sharp Dressed Man', 'Gimme all your loving' and 'I've got the six'.

My favs on the album are the slower numbers where the atmosphere is created by Billy Gibbons bluesy guitarwork. Both 'Got me under pressure' and 'I need you tonight' are far better works than the ones above as these two can sustain overplay lot better than the MTV oriented songs mentioned in the begining or 'legs'.

All in all a great album with no fillers except maybe the last song.

This a great album to start if you want to get introduced to ZZ Top. The band also has other great earlier albums but they are an acquired taste.

I'm not writing this review to comment on the album. You probably already know about Eliminator and nothing I can tell you will change your opinion or add anything substantial. The reason I bought this was because as is the case with a lot of CDs released in the mid/late 80s, the mastering on the original CD release was terrible. If you have a decent stereo and speakers, it sounded bad...no bass, shrill treble...blah. I have to say that I'm very happy with the mastering on this release. "Gimme All Your Lovin" starts out with the thumping bass you'd expect. "Thug" is phenomenal. The rest of the tracks are much, much better than the original. Granted they don't sound like recently recorded music that is correctly mixed and mastered, but it isn't bad. The live tracks don't sound great, but that is kind of to be expected considering when and how they were recorded.

Eleminator, wow what a great album, the last good ZZ Top album for like 10 years though! You know who I blame for that, MTV, they killed so many good bands and made so many killer rock bands go soft! This could have been a five star album had it not been so MTV. But they must have done something right because I think this was their biggest selling album ever.

All the hits off this album 'Gimme All Your Lovin' 'Got Me Under Pressure' 'Sharp Dressed Man' and 'Legs' are all killer songs but there are other good songs on the album as well. Of all the songs that are not hits 'TV Dinners' is my favorite. 'I Need You Tonight' is a sweet little ballady type sympathtic song with some killer guitar.

This is a killer rock album that could have been better had it not been so synthed out and poppy, but over all this is one of ZZ Top's best albums.