Recycler

Recycler
Studio album by ZZ Top
Publication (s)	March 23, 1990
Label (s)	Warner bros.
Genre (s)	Blues rock
Title (number)	10
running time	34min 44s
occupation	Billy Gibbons : vocals , guitar Dusty Hill : vocals, bass Frank Beard : drums
production	Bill Ham
chronology Afterburner 1985 Recycler Antenna 1994
Single releases May 1990 Doubleback 1990 Concrete and Steel 1990 My Head's in Mississippi 1991 Give it up 1991 Burger Man 1991 Decision or collision

Chart positions Explanation of the data

Albums

Recycler   AT 15th 11/11/1990 (11 weeks)   CH 1 October 28, 1990 (26 weeks)   UK 8th October 27, 1990 (7 weeks)   US 6th 11/17/1990 (37 weeks)

Singles

Doubleback   DE 33 07/16/1990 (10 weeks)   CH 13 07/01/1990 (10 weeks)   UK 29 07/29/1990 (6 weeks) My Head's in Mississippi   UK 37 04/13/1991 (5 weeks) Give it up   US 79 02/09/1991 (5 weeks)

Recycler is the tenth studio album by the American blues rock band ZZ Top . It was released on Warner Bros. Records in March 1990 . The album went platinum in the US in 1991 for one million units sold.

Emergence

With the album, the band turned away from the electronic influences on Eliminator and Afterburner and returned to the blues rock of the 1970s. The pieces were created during various jam sessions , which the band played with the equipment available in the studio because their own technology had not yet been delivered. As a result of these sessions, the bluesiest pieces in a long time emerged. The album title "Recycler" is an allusion to the band members' interest in rebuilding classic cars. For the first time, the band took a stand on environmental protection by noting on the album that there were only 10 years left to save the planet. This goes back to drummer Frank Beard , who wanted to offer his twin sons, who were then five years old, a place to live in the future. After this album, the band's commercial success began to wane. Singer and guitarist Billy Gibbons said in an interview in 2005 that the music business was a constant ups and downs and that it was more important to him to make music and go on tour .

Track list

1. Concrete and Steel - 3:45
2. Lovething - 3:20
3. Penthouse Eyes - 3:49
4. Tell It - 4:39
5. My Head's in Mississippi - 4:25
6. Decision or Collision - 3:59
7. Give It Up - 3:24
8. 2000 Blues - 4:37
9. Burger Man - 3:18
10. Doubleback - 3:53

All titles were written jointly by the band.

reception

Stephen Thomas Erlewine from Allmusic expressed his incomprehension about the fact that five years after "Afterburner" the band would continue on the path they started with this album. The beats are powerless and the guitar licks don't deserve the name riff . He also complains that the band, the irony of the album title was not aware ( recycler designated in American English, a recycler ). In contrast, John Swenson of Rolling Stone magazine praised the departure from the synthesizer sound of previous albums in his contemporary review and described it as a "technical masterpiece" that was "constructed around the extraordinary variety of Gibbons guitar textures ". Uwe Deese from Rock Hard sees the album as a cross-section of the creative period from 1972 to 1985. The band shines with bluesy pieces like My Head's in Mississippi , but also gets bored with “disco-compatible” titles like Give It Up and Doubleback .

Web links

• Recycler at Allmusic (English)
• John Swenson: ZZ Top: Recyclers . In: Rolling Stone . November 29, 1990.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Sources chart placements: DE ( Memento of the original from December 18, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was 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 / UK / US , accessed March 24, 2010. 
2. ↑ Certifications: ZZ Top - Recycler. RIAA, accessed April 6, 2010 . 
3. ↑ ^{a b} Dave Larsen: Zz Top Mixes Good Times And Good Causes. Orlando Sentinel, April 5, 1991, accessed April 7, 2010 . 
4. ^ Russell Hall: ZZ Top For Ever. Swampland, December 2005, accessed April 7, 2010 . 
5. ↑ Uwe Deese: ZZ Top: Recycler . In: Rock Hard . No. 45 .