ZZ Top Eliminator (Yellow Vinyl)

With this masterpiece the three Texans achieved their final international breakthrough in 1983. After more or less successful LP's from 1971-1981, this A (the 8th) album marked the change from the rather rough, rough blues to the stadium rock sound that made ZZ Top world famous. The whole record is characterized by synthesizer sounds paired with solid hard rock riffs, which here and there sound more like pop than real hard rock. Many critics accused them of this, but this musical reorientation is of course also strongly connected to the electro-phase of the eighties. Their first two US Top 10 singles "Legs" (8th place) and "Gimme All Your Lovin'" (10th place) showed that they were successful. They also set accents in the MTV decade with their videos, which certainly contributed immensely to their popularity and status as cult figures.

The album contains probably the greatest and most famous hits of the trio, the killer riffs in "Sharp Dressed Man" and "Gimme All Your Lovin'" hammered themselves into the heads of a whole generation. But also "Got Me Under Pressure" and "Legs" are not to be despised. The last single was "TV Dinners", a great groove track. You sometimes wonder why other bands have four, five or even more musicians on stage when three men are obviously enough.

Now on yellow vinyl!