ZZ Top Flies Too Close to the Sun on ‘Afterburner’: Retro Review

For its glorious first four minutes and two seconds, ZZ Top‘s Afterburner achieves the impossible: flying higher than its big brother Eliminator.

For another three and a half, the Texas trio at least match the heights of the highly daring 1983 album which made them superstars. After that? Things get a bit dicey. Perhaps like Icarus, the band flew a bit too close to the sun.

After being rewarded so richly for boldly revamping their Tex-Mex blues rock with synths and programmed drums on Eliminator hits such as “Sharp Dressed Man” and “Legs,” ZZ Top understandably dove deeper into technology on their 1985 follow-up.

Afterburner‘s dazzling album opener “Sleeping Bag” pushes all the new toys even further to the front, even adding hip hop-style scratches to the mix. It’s an audacious case of doubling down on a winning bet, and it pays off handsomely.

Read More: ZZ Top Went Behind Their Producer’s Back to Finish ‘Afterburner’

The next song, “Stages,” is nearly as good, adding a new level of unabashed pop catchiness to the formula. Unfortunately, after that opening one-two punch the fresh ideas start to arrive less frequently.

A sense of formula-following creeps in on tracks such “Woke Up With Wood,” “Planet of Women,” “Dipping Low (In the Lap of Luxury)” and the ultra-peppy “I Got the Message.”

Your mileage may vary wildly on the album’s showcase ballad, “Rough Boy.” The guitar solos are, of course, gorgeous and unassailable. It might also be one of Billy Gibbons‘ finest pure vocal moments. But does the icy, keyboard-dominated backing track sound too much like Invisible Touch-era Genesis, or worse, late ’80s Rod Stewart?

There’s still plenty to enjoy here. Dusty HIll‘s vocals and some particularly rip-roaring guitar riffs add much-needed grit to the tracks “Can’t Stop Rockin'” and “Delirous,” and the drum-heavy “Velcro Fly” shows the band admirably trying out some new dance floor-friendly moves.

But after an opening volley that made it seem like topping the lightning in a bottle magic of Eliminator was an actual possibility, Afterburner understandably falls a bit short of new ideas and inspiration.

This downward trend would continue on ZZ Top’s next album, 1990’s unfortunately aptly named Recycler, after which the trio would bring more organic elements back into their sound.