Zz Top
Mescalero

THE REVIEW

America, late 60s, Billy Gibson [http://guitar-masters.com/Players/GP-Billy_Gibbons.JPG] vocals and guitar of the "Moving Sidewalks" who followed in the footsteps of Hendrix, caused the band to dissolve after the release of their first album.

Thus were formed the "Zz Top", with Dusty Hill as second voice and bass [http://www.johndouglas.com/images/XXXDUS1.jpg] and Frank Beard on drums. Only three people then formed "Zz Top", a musical system that while keeping the typical Texan rock alive influenced by various country symbols was blended with blues, purely hard-rock techniques and over time increasingly approached heavy metal.

Rough and raw vocals, beautiful and fun solos and riffs earned the band a lot of success, which contributed to capturing the public's attention by focusing on an original and extremely fun look. Representing themselves as their own musical genre turned out to be fundamental and spot-on for Zz Top. Just as popular singers dress and groom themselves to look handsome, and death metal singers paint their faces, Zz Top had to dress in Blues\Rock|Hard Rock\Country|Heavy, hence the two mile-long blonde beards, leather jackets, flashy shirts, and sunglasses. Three people, just three people, stayed together for more than 35 years marking a fundamental point in the history of rock. They also made soundtracks, including "Mexican Blackbird" for the movie "From Dusk Till Dawn" and "Doubleback" for "Back to the Future Part 3", whose hilarious music video is included in the DVD's special features.

But Zz Top are human beings, and like practically all musical legends they too fall and decline over the years by imperfection, diluting and ruining their style. "Mescalero", from 2003, presents the bearded Texans in a context more Metallic and hard country rock than the Psychedelic\Classic and Blues by which they became very popular, it is essentially a good record, with nice very hard rock rhythms and pleasant listening points, an album that will be much liked by alternative hard rock lovers, but at the same time an album that disappoints those who have followed the band since their beginnings. From the late 60s to 2003, there is an intermingling of generations, fashions, trends, and cultural social contexts impossible to deny that could do nothing but put out of route the imagination of a band now old, and 16 tired, daring and consumed songs are felt a lot.

But let's pretend for a moment not to know the Gibson band at all and to buy "Mescalero" in a store because intrigued for example by the artwork or the title track. "Mescalero" is a typically hard rock song lacking the fluidity and interconnectedness of a plurality of rhythms that characterized the band, but it has a very motivated rhythm, a typical rock'n heavy drum and guitar play and a catchy chorus, a rock song itself acceptable and with the presence of digital solos like xylophone. Followed by "Two Ways To Play" that keeps the hard rock soul alive and hits nothing as it does not propose anything anew nor introduces anything else except a breeze of "Nu" that honestly can irritate the listening, note that the guitar is now a distorted guitar, an element that was not part of Gibbons' nature. "Alley Gator" opens with a little game of bass and accordion, maintains a hard and wild rhythm with even drum solos, for three minutes, it only gives a monotonous impression. Recovers with "Buck Nekkid" which in my opinion is very nice, and better ties back to the true nature of the band, an almost rock'n roll rhythm if it weren't for the characteristically hard distorted guitar, a very intriguing and catchy 70s road rhythm. It is the turn then of "Goin' so Good" very beautiful, which even not knowing the lyrics I see perfect for a Jack Daniels commercial, a melancholic and sad song, slow and that keeps well solid the sound reference to Texas, the deserts and country. "Me So Stupid" can be found in that set of beautiful songs but already heard from other bands, while "Piece" has a beautiful rhythm and scratchy and prolonged solos very nice to listen to. "Punk Ass Boyfriends" is something I would never have imagined hearing from Zz Top, a combination of this kind to modern and commercial themes luckily "What Would You Do" very nice, picks up the classic musicality and this time takes up the boogie theme that seemed to have disappeared. "Que Lastima" is cute and sweet, melodic like a prayer, sung in Portuguese while "Liquor" with which the album closes picks back a bit of many aspects to concentrate them on this concluding track that leaves a bit of a void in the mouth.

From this analysis of the songs, it is easy to understand that the album is not so bad after all, and indeed it could be quite liked by lovers of alternative rock. It is a bit of a lesson, it seems to want to impart a moral to the listener. The moral is this:

"Success will never be eternal, and no matter how popular, even the best stars in the field of music will wane or self-destruct".

Zz Top seems to say

"With this album, we propose what we discarded, or what we never did but would have done in other circumstances, this is the closing chapter with which people of the 2000s can try to rediscover us and then self-document about our past, we enjoy the holidays".

And then happy holidays to a band that made the history of rock.