ZZ Top
673
Audio CD
31 offers from $3.40
ZZ Top
362
Audio CD
1 offer from $16.99
ZZ Top
1,027
Audio CD
27 offers from $8.45
ZZ Top
665
Audio CD
42 offers from $3.32
ZZ Top
437
Audio CD
2 offers from $14.14
ZZ Top
798
Audio CD
31 offers from $2.94

Track Listings

1	Mescalero
2	Two Ways To Play
3	Alley-Gator
4	Buck Nekkid
5	Goin' So Good
6	Me So Stupid
7	Piece
8	Punk Ass Boyfriend
9	Stackin' Paper
10	What Would You Do
11	What It Is Kid
12	Que Lastima
13	Tramp
14	Crunchy
15	Dusted
16	Liquor

Editorial Reviews

Product description

CD > POPULAR MUSIC > ROCK

Amazon.com

Midway through their fourth decade, the "Little Ol' Band from Texas" has lost none of their preternatural affinity for the blues. But, as this album ably demonstrates, that love continues to be informed by a restless sonic creativity that keeps it remarkably fresh. Proving he remains a fan of pop music in all its myriad incarnations, the greasengrit production of band mainstay Billy Gibbons gives it all a surprisingly contemporary edge, be it the grunge-meets-techno rattle of "Me So Stupid," the emblematic Top boogie "Buck Nekkid," or zydeco-tinged lugubriousness of "Alley-Gator." But Gibbons and company's alternately lo-fi and electro sensibilities also takes intriguing detours down country roads on "Goin' So Good" and "What Would You Do," while the en espanol "Que Lastima" see them stray rewardingly across the Rio Grande for inspiration. The bluesy, hip-hop experimentalism of "Crunchy" and "Dusted" offer up more angular treats, morphing effortlessly into the patented, greasy boogie of "Liquor," then a country-blues cover/hidden track/coda of the chestnut "As Time Goes By," the warmest surprise of an album already blessed with more than its share. --Jerry McCulley

Product details

Is Discontinued By Manufacturer ‏ : ‎ No
Product Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.62 x 4.92 x 0.33 inches; 3.84 Ounces
Manufacturer ‏ : ‎ Sony Legacy
Original Release Date ‏ : ‎ 2003
Run time ‏ : ‎ 1 hour and 6 minutes
Date First Available ‏ : ‎ November 12, 2006
Label ‏ : ‎ Sony Legacy
ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00008W2RO
Number of discs ‏ : ‎ 1

Best Sellers Rank: #242,199 in CDs & Vinyl (See Top 100 in CDs & Vinyl)
- #1,109 in Classic Southern Rock
- #4,404 in Blues Rock (CDs & Vinyl)
- #6,751 in Album-Oriented Rock (AOR) (CDs & Vinyl)

Customer Reviews:
4.4 584 ratings

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Videos

Help others learn more about this product by uploading a video!

Upload your video

Important information

To report an issue with this product, click here.

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5

584 global ratings

How customer reviews and ratings work

Reviews with images

See all photos

Sort reviews by

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

D. G. Devin

ZZ Top back in the saddle

Reviewed in the United States on September 14, 2003

Verified Purchase

There are bands that rocked us especially well back when we were mere infants, cruising around in the hot, sulty night of our youth with the car windows rolled down and our libidos on overdrive. One such was ZZ Top, they were quirky what with that Texas thing happening, but at the same time they delivered pure, white-hot blues-rock with an intensity that three-piece bands seem especially good at. Their fat, boogie-drenched sound was in sharp contrast to the pretentious direction that some bands explored back then, and nobody could get the feet moving like the Top. I was tickled when they were reborn some year laters, taking the MTV world by storm with video-friendly songs that put the terrible trio back on top of the charts. Maybe the music wasn't quite as rootsy, but a new generation of kids seemed to like it, so why not.
And then they got a little odder with each passing album, there are some really weird tunes on the past few Top albums, you just don't expect to hear Vincent Price mentioned in the lyrics of a song by a blues-rock band. The sound got deeper and murkier, layer upon layer of studio-processed sound that was clearly going to be tough to reproduce onstage. And they even reissued classic material with ill-advised studio massaging, excess reverb and such foolishness, most regrettable. The new albums were still enjoyable if you were a true Cactushead, they always had some catchy tunes in between the wonderful weirdness, but I could understand how someone just coming to ZZ Top could wonder what the hell was going on.
Thus I am delighted at their new album, Mescalero. Not that it ain't still quirky, I don't think these guys will ever be able to leave humor out of their music, but they seem to be taking another run at the basics, grinding out the blues with a passion. And there are flashes of other music all through the album, acid-zydeco maybe (if there is such a thing), techno-country with a classic Nashville lyric shimmering through an odd phase-shifting studio effect, a heartbreak ballad dripping with steel guitar, and Tex-Mex squirting out all over, some songs even being sung in Spanish, and even a little rockabilly jazz. There's a take on the rap-predecessor R&B classic "Tramp," a song Buddy Guy tore up on his second-last album Sweet Tea, and there's even a (hidden track) song you heard first while watching the immortal movie Casablanca, if you can believe that.
Mescalero contains a generous sixteen tracks, maybe not all as good as the best of them, "Me So Stupid" has so far failed to make the cut with me, and "Punk Ass Boyfriend" lavishes fiery guitar on an otherwise forgettable song. But others, like the first three -- "Mescalero," "Two Ways to Play" and "Alley-Gator" -- dang, that's as strong an opening as I've head on any album for some time. One oddity is some apparent bad-language editing on a track or three, as if RCA is afraid the mass-market retailers would demand a parental warning sticker due to the F-word sneaking into a rock lyric, strange, perhaps the album's release being delayed for long months has more of a story behind it than we've heard.
...

22 people found this helpful

Helpful

Greg T.

ZZ TOP as ZZ Top

Reviewed in the United States on July 8, 2022

Verified Purchase

You of course get that GREAT ZZ Top sound. Band is in fantastic form. Songs ......don't really stand out for me but that's still OK. This is a good CD to have in your Guitar Rockin collection. Billy G. Playing some tasty stuff here.

3 people found this helpful

Helpful

Paul

Going where no man has gone before

Reviewed in the United States on February 14, 2004

Verified Purchase

This album has a groove from beginning to end. Its the best and most complete album they have released in a long time. Billy Gibbons is constantly trying to grow as a player and his sound on this album is really unique. The lyrics are fun and the songs really groove its just a good time to be had by all. ZZ top blends some different styles of music together but it all works well together. It has 16 cuts and there all good. New territory is covered here and it sounds like they had fun making this record cause it seems to come threw in the songs. Buy it try it and you will not be able to take it out of the CD player it gets better with each spin.

5 people found this helpful

Helpful

Mike Blaszczak

Ain't All Good, but it's What we Got

Reviewed in the United States on November 12, 2003

Verified Purchase

From the opening bars of the title track, you can hear the plush fly from your speakers and land on the floor. Mescalero nails the sound that makes ZZ Top fans like ZZ Top; the furry, thick, and fuzzy riffs. Notes so covered in fur that you can't hear the intonation, that the transitions are vague shapes that need a shave.
The Top hasn't nailed this formula for years -- maybe since Eliminator back in the 80's. But Mescalero delivers hairy buckets of stomp blues, and here it is.
The Mescalero style might even make some new fans for the band, since the first four or five tracks are very approachable and listenable. There's a couple of novelty tracks, including the "secret" track rendition of Dusty singing "As Time Goes By". (Well, I said "singing". To paraphrase Dickey Barrett, "If you can't sing, do whatever it is that Dusty is doing.")
Songs like "Liquor" give modern twists to traditional blues songs. There's some crap novelty, like "Me So Stupid". The rest of the record uses their scruffy, gravelly tones to cover subtle innuendo and ironic humor. And those attributes are what you want when you buy ZZ Top records, right?

4 people found this helpful

Helpful

Clayton A. Reed

Way Better Than Reported

Reviewed in the United States on October 28, 2019

Verified Purchase

I don't ever understand the low reviews or complaints about this album. I really enjoy listening to it, and there are some very memorable songs on it as well. It isn't their best, but it is certainly worth a listen, and more than one at that. I often see it ranked lower than their debut, and that's hard for me to understand. The stand outs in my opinion are Mescalero, Alley-Gator, Me So Stupid, Piece, and What It Is Kid.

4 people found this helpful

Helpful

Bob G

Underrated Album

Reviewed in the United States on September 16, 2019

Verified Purchase

IMHO, this is one of the best ZZ albums of all. The first two tracks are raucous, bass-banging classic ZZ and there's enough solo work from Billy to make any Top fan happy. I had no idea this was even out and I found it on Amazon so I bought it - I listen to it all the time now.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

David R. Ellsworth

Classic ZZ Blues

Reviewed in the United States on April 14, 2021

Verified Purchase

This is a great example of ZZ Top bringing their flavor of blues rock to the future. The energy and tone of the music is fantastic.

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

jude

Zztop

Reviewed in Canada on July 26, 2023

Verified Purchase

One of the best rocking, blues bands

Great.

Dana White

Awesome very pleased

Reviewed in Canada on August 10, 2023

Verified Purchase

Very pleased

Nigel Marshall

Macho music of a very high standard!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 18, 2020

Verified Purchase

I’ve only recently discovered how much I like ZZ Top, having been put off by their 80s MTV fare. At heart they are snappy musicians who don’t take themselves too seriously and have in Billy Gibbons the best hard rock blues guitarist in the business. It also helps that their music is kept dynamic by not cluttering it up with too many additions to the three-piece format. Mescalero is a Tex-Mex album, some of it sung in Spanish, that deploys in addition to the triumvirate instruments such as marimba and accordion. The opening track, Mescalero, which refers to a heavy Mescal drinker, chugs along with feral ferocity driven largely on some really fat distorted bass, thumping drumming and lovely marimba flourishes - Billy Gibbons snarls over the top of this in a mixture of Spanish and English before finally he unleashes some vicious guitar. I just love this. The rest of the album, over an hour of it in all, never quite reaches the same heights as the opening track, but it is full of punchy performances and their trademark witty but largely inconsequential lyricism. Standout tracks include Alley Gator, Buck Nekkid, Tramp, Crunchy and a ‘hidden’ performance of As Time Goes By in which Billy’s singing is so much like Tom Waits that I’m not sure it’s not him. Overall, this is macho music of a very high standard which briefly undoes these emasculating times. The All Music website gave this album a rating of 2/5 and the album only made 57 on the Billboard charts. What’s wrong with the world?
Standout Track: Mescalero

5 people found this helpful

The Pez

Old new school Top

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 6, 2013

Verified Purchase

Having been a fan of the Top since I discovered Tres Hombres way back in the seventies, for me they have never failed to deliver and Mescalero is no exception. There seems to be four distinct era's to ZZ Top, early blues/rock (First Album - Tres Hombres), experimentation (Deguellio/El Loco) commercialisation (Eliminator - Recycler) and post commercialisation (Antenna onwards), this carries on from Antenna and Rhythmeen where the boys have been trying to get back to the stripped down feel of their early albums, and which even though they get some poor reviews I find satisfying and probably bulds upon them. It is a long CD by Top standards with 16 tracks (but 17 songs) but it is never dull and there is plenty of variety Que Lastina on which Billy Gibbons sings in Spanish very, very well and if you let the CD play you will find a version of "As Time Goes By" lurking at the end (but not listed). For me the highlight though is Goin' So Good, one of those times like "I Need You Tonight" off Eliminator or "Blue Jean Blues" off Fandango or "Rough Boy" from Afterburner when they come up with one of those gut wrenching slow songs that just seems to have you ending up in tears, it is an an absolute classic, has some brilliant slide guitar work in it and the lyrics are so, so sweet. So why only four stars and not five? Nothing compares to Fandango and Tres Hombres to me, but this is close, I still love it and the Top, so if you are a young pup looking to get into classic rock/blues, get into the Top, you know you want to.

7 people found this helpful

Innes

Great purchase value for money

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 7, 2023

Verified Purchase

Delighted with condition of cd and value for money thanks

See more reviews

Image Unavailable

Mescalero

Import

Similar items that may ship from close to you

Track Listings