The Official Needles and Grooves 1001 Album Generator Project

TenderLovingKiller® said:
I feel like Fun Lovin’ Criminals sat nicely next to Sublime, Eminem, Bloodhound Gang, and License To lll era Beastie Boys in a certain type of guys CD flip case in the 90s.
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YoHabloEspanol said:
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I was 14 in '99. The songs were catchy and the lyrics were fun. I wasn't really looking for deep inspiration or anything.
(See also all Limp Bizkit CDs. Not proud of that either.)
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@YoHabloEspanol Can relate. In fact, this:

Lee Newman said:
“Allison”
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Only made me think of this:

 
You simply couldn't escape this one in 1983. It was everywhere. And I think that's one of the things that unjustly hampers it over time.

Musically, some things come across dated. But, overall, a few components throw enough weight around to ground things outside of that 80s sound. Adhering to the bones of the blues, throwing in a Little Richard style raveup, sprinkling the electronics with a little desert dust - all of these elements work to reel this record in a bit. Ultimately, it's Billy's guitar work that bridges this one from modern day musical conventions to the basic blues framework always preached by The Reverend Willie G.

For me, the biggest detriment to this record was how ZZ Top embraced MTV. They became more cartoon characters than musicians. At the same time, that schtick is probably what brought many new fans to the band and led to them discovering their back catalog.
 
jamieanderson1968 said:
Between Eliminator and Afterburner, ZZ Top were giant robots astride music 83-86.

That time period is pretty crazy for how many huge bands there were, who were everywhere. If people think Taylor and Beyoncé are big now, imagine another 10 acts like that and throw in another 15 Billie Elish’s as well
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Eliminator was in the billboard charts for three years and was one of the first albums given diamond status.
 
I’m of the MTV generation. I was a little young when this came out but it’s staying power meant it was a nice soundtrack for the 80s and I remember the songs quite well, if not the videos.

MTV was huge for my music discovery and why I was never really in a hard rock or pop or any genre lane. I feel their attitude towards music redefined pop charts for the better.

I read the liner notes to the deluxe version of this last night and it sounds more as if MTV bought into ZZ Top.

Whatever convergence of influences, etc transpired, I think the fact that ZZ Top got huge, as weird as they and this album are, is a good thing not a bad thing.
 
dbarila said:
I never really got into them before. I always just kind of considered them a gimmicky classic rock radio band.
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I think this is the one thing that is unfortunate from this era that the cartoon became the reality of the band. I remember when I first heard Tres Hombres, I was like wait… this is the Sharp Dressed Man band?
 
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