Antenna (album)

Antenna
Studio album by ZZ Top
Publication (s)	January 18, 1994
Label (s)	RCA Records
Genre (s)	Blues rock
Title (number)	11
running time	50min 51s
occupation	Billy Gibbons : vocals , guitar Dusty Hill : vocals, bass Frank Beard : drums
production	Bill Ham
chronology Recycler 1990 Antenna Rhythms 1996
Single releases 1994 Pincushion 1994 Breakaway 1994 Fuzzbox Voodoo 1994 Girl In A T-Shirt

Chart positions Explanation of the data

Albums

Antenna   DE 3 January 31, 1994 (22 weeks)   AT 2 01/30/1994 (16 weeks)   CH 3 01/30/1994 (18 weeks)   UK 3 02/05/1994 (5 weeks)   US 14th 02/05/1994 (23 weeks)

Singles

Pincushion   CH 40 02/13/1994 (2 weeks)   UK 15th 01/29/1994 (3 weeks) Breakaway   UK 60 05/07/1994 (1 week)

Antenna is the eleventh studio album by the American blues rock band ZZ Top . It was released on RCA Records in January 1994 . The album went platinum in the US in 1994 for one million units sold. For the first time, none of the four single releases made it into the Billboard Hot 100 .

useful information

After the existing record deal with Warner Bros. Records expired , the band signed a new record deal with RCA Records for five albums in the summer of 1992 . The contract provided for a contract completion bonus of five million dollars, an advance of five million dollars per album, a royalty rate of 20% and a generous budget for music videos . It was also agreed that all rights to the master tapes and the video material would fall to the band after the end of the contract.

The recordings for the album took place at Ardent Studios in Memphis , Tennessee . For the first time, the band used overdubs on vocals , but renounced the use of synthesizers and turned back to the Texas blues of the 1970s releases. Two of the recorded songs did not appear on the regular album. Everything was used as a bonus track on the European version, Mary’s was released as the B-side of the single Breakaway . The album title is intended to recall the illegal radio stations on the US-Mexico border that played blues and rock 'n' roll in the 1950s and 1960s and which Billy Gibbons secretly listened to as a teenager.

The album was a commercial success in Europe and reached number 1 on the album charts in countries such as Sweden and Finland . By March 1994, Antenna had sold around 800,000 copies in Europe and Asia alone, and in Europe the band had completed a five-week advertising campaign with 33 television appearances in 13 different countries.

Track list

1. Pincushion (Beard, Gibbons, Hill) - 4:33
2. Breakaway (Gibbons) - 4:57
3. World Of Swirl (Gibbons) - 4:08
4. Fuzzbox Voodoo (Beard, Gibbons, Hill) - 4:42
5. Girl In A T-Shirt (Gibbons) - 4:10
6. Antenna Head (Beard, Gibbons, Hill) - 4:42
7. PCH (Beard, Gibbons, Hill) - 3:57
8. Cherry Red (Gibbons) - 4:38
9. Cover Your Rig (Beard, Gibbons, Hill) - 5:48
10. Lizard Life (Beard, Gibbons, Hill) - 5:09
11. Deal Goin 'Down (Beard, Gibbons, Hill) - 4:06

reception

The band's return to blues rock sparked mixed reactions. The online magazine laut.de wrote that the album was "rougher than before and equipped with considerably more groovy songs" and that the band had reduced their music to the essentials. For Cub Koda from Allmusic , the band takes the step into the 1990s with the album, he sees parallels to Tres Hombres in the guitar work of Billy Gibbons in particular . Rock Hard magazine called the album a step back to the "old, earthy three-man blues scheme", which was only half-heartedly carried out and the Times wrote that Antenna was a "rough album that didn't sparkle a bit" and described it ZZ Top as "a band that has lost its golden touch".

Web links

• Antenna at Allmusic (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Sources chart placements: DE ( Memento from October 11, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) / AT / CH / UK / US
2. ↑ Certifications: ZZ Top - Recycler. RIAA, accessed April 20, 2010 . 
3. ↑ Melinda Newman: ZZ Top Show Its Legs At RCA In $ 30 Mil Deal . In: Billboard Magazine . July 4, 1992, p. 6 .
4. ↑ Steven Rosen: ZZ Top: From A to ZZ. (No longer available online.) Guitar World, October 22, 2009, archived from the original on June 19, 2010 ; Retrieved April 20, 2010 (English). 
5. ↑ Biography ZZ Top. (No longer available online.) Musicmight.com, archived from the original on June 18, 2010 ; accessed on April 21, 2010 (English). 
6. ↑ Blues. Preferably a ball . In: Der Spiegel . No. 9/1994 , p. 222 .
7. ↑ Thom Duffy: ZZ Top's Antenna Abroad . In: Billboard Magazine . March 5, 1994, p. 45 .
8. ↑ Biography ZZ Top. laut.de, accessed on April 21, 2010 . 
9. ↑ http://www.rockhard.de/index.php?smod=p209Wz1iMUIfo2qAo2D9pz9wn2uupzDhLzShMUZhMTI0LJyfIzyyqlMapz91pRyRCKWbK2WuozDzL29hqTIhqRyGR0npzyhB non-retrievable (link)
10. ↑ ZZ Top - Biography. (No longer available online.) Musicline.de , archived from the original on June 1, 2009 ; Retrieved April 21, 2010 .