Customer Reviews

Antenna

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

On ANTENNA, ZZ TOP try to return to their pre ELIMANATOR style. By that I mean, more blues riffs and a more blusey sound instead of trying to be so polished. While this is not a great ZZ TOP album, it is by no means a bad one. The album has some good riffs to it and has some good rocking songs. I like the songs PINCUSHION, WORLD OF SWIRL, FUZZBOX VOODOO, COVER YOUR RIG, LIZARD LIFE. If you found about this group from thier videos, then I suggest this album for you so you can get an understanding of what the group was about before than. They are just a little ol' blues band from Texas that continues to make some good music. How can you argue with a group that has been together and still has the same members after 30 years. I think that this album should be a welcomed addition to your CD collection.

This a really good ZZ Top album, a noticeable improvement over Recycler. Antenna is a bit of a return to their earlier, bluesier sound. Billy Gibbons cranks up the amp on this one, and the album rocks pretty hard, but there's still a few remnants of that '80s pop sound. Mostly good guitar rockers here, with plenty of Gibbons' trademark pinch harmonics. Pincushion, World of Swirl, Antenna Head, Cover Your Rig and Deal Goin' Down are all great songs that rock hard.

Antenna isn't quite as hard as the follow-up, 1996's Rhythmeen, but it's a step in that direction. If you like Rio Grande Mud and Tres Hombres-era ZZ Top, then do check out Antenna and Rhythmeen. I don't think you will be disappointed.

I had this release on tape back when it came out in Fall of '94 and wore it out to the point where the tape fell out of the case. Now, I'm doing the same with the CD, if it's possible to wear out a CD. Just rediscovered this gem and was not sorry I did. Having been a Top fan since '83 and catching them live on the Rhythmeen tour and being a guitarist that has copped many a Gibbons lick, it is refreshing to hear that this CD has pushed away from the keyboardy, synthish, electric drummy, polished & glitzy sound of old. The trio is thumping heavily in true Top style. For one thing, Gibbons sports a real dry, punchy, meaty, crunchy guitar sound that is surprisingly soothing to the ears. A few solos knock me back in my shoes, particularly the solo to "Breakaway". I personally feel the man is incapable of playing an incorrect note. Guitarists call this gift "phrasing" and Billy has it to give away. To put it mildly, he has a tone that I feel will never and cannot ever be duplicated, if only by him. Hill is on bass, old faithful with a wall of thump and bump and growl and more than ably holding down the bottom solidly. Beard is highly active on the skins and cymbals, without being abrasive and overplaying, then plodding and stable at other times. This shows the true talent of a drummer who has gone from bar-fight blues to rocket boogie to techno-styled dashings back to commanding the foundation of the song. They seem to all 3 be tight and locked in. There are one or two tunes on here that I can live without, but that would be lyrically, not musically. One would think that after 24 years of being RECORDED artists (at this release date, anyway) that they would go stale with songs about women, drinking, partying, cars, compromising situations, and hell-raising, but they always find a way to make the tried and true sound new and ear-opening. They do it well and nobody can ride it as long and successfully as they have. They haven't been together for over 3 decades for nothing. This is not a disappointment by any means. A good CD to pop in with the windows down on a long road trip. Enjoy.

I must say that Antenna is growing on me, but I also
must say that...of all ZZ Top albums I've heard, this
one is the weakest. Pincushion is cool, but I prefer
the Sin-Pusher version on XXX. Antenna Head is fun...
but not in the great category. The CD, in my opinion,
has one fantastic track, and that is the song that could
save your life: Cover Your Rig...an ode to safe sex.
That song is excellent slow blues in the best ZZ tradition.
So I would recommend this CD to ZZ fanatics, just don't have too high hopes for it.

It seems ZZ Top was done messing with sequencers and programmed "synthesized" drums by the time '94 rolled around. That's not to say this album is a total return to the sound that made up their earliest albums. No, because the production and song-writing on Antenna just won't allow for that. But having said that, it is the blusiest release by the boys since at least Deguello or perhaps even Tejas. Gibbons guitar tone is low-down and dirty, making one forget all about those glittering (Slide It In-era) Whitesnake-style riffs and solos that so generously filled Afterburner and occassionally still reared their commericial head on Recycler. Even the likes of "My Head's In Mississippi" from Recycler can't compete with the rejuvenated passion in the blues Gibbons had displayed throughout Antenna. "Breakaway" is the first real clue here that the boys mean business, and the spirit is maintained well thru "World of Swirl" and "Fuzzbox Voodoo." "PCH" begins with a devastatingly down and dirty Gibbons lick, and just forces the tried and true Top fan to crack a smile and leaves them ready for more. The upbeat tempos of the previous three outings are mostly maintained here, but at least it appears to the naked ear that Beard is actually rappin' on the skins once again.
Top seems destined to roll along with relative ease, changing their sound a bit here and there, while rolling up and taking back down bits of the future as well as the past in the process. At this point, they seem incapable of putting out an unenjoyable release. Just having some fun while poppin' the "Top" down and soakin' up the sun...

Antenna has to be one of ZZ Tops, top five albums of all time and its one of my personal favorites. Billy Gibbons guitar is so amazing here, its better then usual. The songs are great in the ZZ Top fashion, and its not all 80's tchno and MTV friendly crap either, its just good old American rock and roll.

Antenna has some powerful songs to work with. 'Antenna Head' being the best song on the album, its got a killer solo great feel and an all around great sound everything just fits together really well. It has to be one of the bands all time best songs, or at least in my openion anyways. 'Cherry Red' is annother great song, its one of the better tracks. Its has a really cool groove to it. Really nice. 'Pincushion' is a great song as well, and one of the best opening tracks I have ever heard. 'FuzzBox Voodoo' is a cool song and as you might have guessed Billy Gibbons uses a lot of FuzzBox in his guitar playing. The album ends with 'Deal Goin Down' and all I have to say is that is the perfect song to end the album.

All the other songs on the album are great, well they are better then great but those are the songs you will be listening to over and over and ovevr again. Pick up this awsome album!

"Pincushion" and for particular "Breakaway" are great openers of a brilliant longplayer. ZZ-Top are back on top with this wonderful rock-masterpiece.

All I can say is that it is sold out, unavailable, where ever you try to find it. Even on the ZZ Top website. Some reviewers may say it is just so-so, old hat...but fans say otherwise.

It's very clear that something happened to ZZ Top after releasing the ground breaking "Eliminator". On that album, ZZ Top did it more or less naturally but since it became such a huge success, they couldn't let go. ZZ Top have two separate directions - the pre-Eliminator when they were a great blues band making excellent music, and then there's the modern ZZ Top trying too hard to make another "Eliminator". I would prefer if the little band from Texas took some time to look in the review mirror - maybe they'd discover what made them special in the first place. "Antenna" may not be an awful album but it sure can't compete with anything before "Eliminator".

These guys know how to stir up the juices with just a lick of their guitar! This is a put ya in a sexy, naughty mood CD...be warned should be listened to with a willing partner! ;-]