Mescalero (album)

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Mescalero
Studio album by ZZ Top

Publication
(s)

September 2003

Label (s) RCA Records

Genre (s)

Blues rock

Title (number)

16

running time

75min 08s

occupation

production

Billy Gibbons

Studio (s)

Foam Box Recordings, Houston , Texas

chronology
XXX
1999
Mescalero La Futura
2012
Single release
2003 Piece
Chart positions
Explanation of the data
Albums
Mescalero
  DE 9 09/22/2003 (6 weeks)
  AT 33 09/21/2003 (3 weeks)
  CH 22nd 09/21/2003 (5 weeks)
  US 57 09/27/2003 (3 weeks)

Mescalero is the fourteenth studio album by the American blues rock band ZZ Top . It was released in September 2003 and was the band's final album for RCA Records . Around 103,000 units were sold in the United States.

useful information

Most of the pieces on the album were written by Billy Gibbons , only What It Is Kid is a joint effort by all band members. Sound engineer Joe Hardy was involved in the song Stackin 'Paper , and bassist Gary Moon in the song Me So Stupid alongside Hardy . The track Tramp is a cover version of a track written by Lowell Fulson and Jimmy McCracklin and featured on Fulson's 1967 album Tramp . At the end of the album there is an interpretation of As Time Goes By as a hidden track . With Crunchy there is an instrumental on the album.

The album title refers on the one hand to the Indian tribe Mescalero , based in South Texas , but also to the tequila- like spirit mescal and the psychedelic hallucinogen mescaline . The cover is by Ryk Maverick and is inspired by the movie Day of the Dead .

Track list

  1. Mescalero (Gibbons) - 3:50
  2. Two Ways to Play (Gibbons) - 4:15
  3. Alley-Gator (Gibbons) - 3:29
  4. Buck Nekkid (Gibbons) - 3:02
  5. Goin 'So Good (Gibbons) - 5:34
  6. Me So Stupid (Gibbons, Hardy, Moon) - 3:33
  7. Piece (Gibbons) - 4:19
  8. Punk Ass Boyfriend (Gibbons) - 3:05
  9. Stackin 'Paper (Gibbons, Hardy) - 2:58
  10. What Would You Do (Gibbons) - 3:03
  11. What It Is Kid (Beard, Gibbons, Hill) - 4:13
  12. Que Lastima (Gibbons) - 4:24
  13. Tramp (Fulson, McCracklin) - 5:12
  14. Crunchy (Gibbons) - 3:13
  15. Dusted (Gibbons) - 3:55
  16. Liquor (Gibbons) - 3:22

reception

Stephen Thomas Erlewine from Allmusic says that titles like Liquor , the instrumental Crunchy or What Would You Do suggested that Billy Gibbon's skills as a songwriter have returned. With these tracks and the cover version Tramp , the band sounds like they are finding their way back to their old strengths and building on them. However, the rest of the album seems too “polished” and lacks the “pithy hooklines and dirty grooves ”. Erlewine sums up that the four named titles show that ZZ Top is definitely capable of recording a good blues rock album with the right producer . Frank Albrecht from Rock Hard magazine says that the band has once again succeeded in “spicing up their bluesy roots with contemporary sounds”, the album sounds “traditional and fresh at the same time”. Alexander Cordas from laut.de writes that ZZ Top and Mescalero have combined the basics of blues , country and rock into a "wonderfully dry cocktail".

Individual evidence

  1. a b Sources chart placements: DE ( Memento of the original from October 11, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. / AT / CH / US @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.musicline.de
  2. Exclusive: ZZ Top Signs To American Recordings. billboard.com, accessed May 10, 2010 .
  3. a b Robert Silverstein: LOADED & TRUCKIN '... An interview with ZZ Top guitarist Billy F. Gibbons. MWE3.com, accessed May 10, 2010 .
  4. ^ Frank Albrecht: ZZ Top: Mescalero . In: Rock Hard . No. 198 .

Web links