Rancho Texicano: The Very Best of ZZ Top (Remastered)

iTunes Review

The LP version of ZZ Top’s breakthrough 1973 album Tres Hombres featured in its gatefold a huge photo close-up of Tex-Mex food in all its refried greasy glory. In many ways, ZZ Top’s career is defined by that image: uncultured, uncomplicated, and at times indigestible, but always authentically American. Like James Brown and Chuck Berry, ZZ Top are fundamentalists and over the course of their almost 40-year career their recipe has remained almost entirely unchanged. As teenagers they reduced blues to a few power chords and a steel-coated shuffle and they haven’t looked back since. What is amazing is how well ZZ Top have always managed to fit into their surroundings. In the Seventies they shared bills with both B.B. King and Bad Company. After reinforcing their sound with rumbling synthesizers and drum machines, the Eighties found ZZ Top sharing space on MTV with Billy Idol and Huey Lewis. The group has always been as comfortable on Miami Vice as there are in Texas mud. This immense two-disc collection skips over several of the band’s Nineties hits, but that matters very little. Even before the second disc starts, you’ll be able to feel the grease and exhaust coursing through your veins.