-Heartache in Blue - fantastic, simply awesome. Love the riff, love the harp, love the sound, love Dusty's contribution. Hell yes.
- I Don't Wanna Lose Lose You - pretty good, somewhat linear but so is the entire album.
- Flyin High - prefer the original version, this one is trying too hard to be unadventerous and lacks Billy's flare and touch. A rare miss.
- It's Too Easy Manana - already perhaps within the top five of my favorite Billy solos of all time. Love the mood
- Big Shiny Nine - again rather straightforward - which is not a bad thing when its ZZ, but again a conservative approach
- Have a Little Mercy - great laidback melody and southern blues with just a hint of country. Great vocals.
It would appear that the meaning of "going back to their roots" entails removing Billy's eccentric and experimental studio approach to songs. Billy would take a basic track and throw in all kinds of sounds and beats, starting with the Antenna album and progressing to perhaps what may prove to be his artistic peak, the masterpiece that is Mescalero. I can see where the sounds on "La Futura" were laid down and instead of Billy leading the full helm and layering sounds during production, Rubin kept it simple and reinforced a hard rock sound.
It is perhaps no surprise that "I Gotsta Get Paid", arguably the best song of the ten, is a tune which Rubin had never heard of before, Billy fully conceived, and features the most diverse and experimental sounds of the entire album. Maybe the producer mix should have been 70% Billy , 30% Rubin?
Notwithstanding the above, overall I find this to be a fantastic and most exciting new album from the Top. No doubt it will fit the mold of and interest the average rock fan, both old and young, and should prove to sell very well.
Finally it has arrived, and finally fans the world over can tune in and rejoice in the continuing evolution of the world's longest running band, the world's greatest band, the ZZ Tops.
