The previous album put ZZ Top in an interesting position – now that they were big stars, in an era where being a big star was so much more of a commodity than it is now, they had to think about how to build upon this new-found stardom.
The guys in ZZ Top are not what you would call complicated, and unlike other musicians, I would not say blind ambition is at the top of their priority list – although I could be wrong about that. The response for their camp was this album, the curiously-titled Afterburner, which in many places sounded like the band was not likely to mess with the formula which brought them success on the previous album.
About the only real changes of note were a more pronounced teeny-bopper vibe, in the form of upbeat dance-pop rhythms on quite a few of these songs, in order to appeal to many of their new found fans gathered from the previous aural conquest.
Afterburner, as I remember, had a slew of MTV-friendly videos and radio hits, among them – “Sleeping Bag”, “Stages”, “Rough Boy”, “Planet of Women”, and “Velcro Fly”.
It goes without saying this is beyond dated to the mid-1980’s – although I think where this is most painfully noticeable is on a few of the deep cuts like “Can’t Stop Rockin” and “I Got the Message”, which fall woefully short of what would pass for filler on ZZ Top albums as late as El Loco.
But even on the known quantities – for example, “Planet of Women” (which cops “Got Me Under Pressure”) – the boys are too busy rehashing the Eliminator script to notice that it is getting a bit too long in the tooth already.
Conversely, that is also the perverse charm of Afterburner – that ZZ Top dared cut such a direct clone of its’ predecessor, as if they were admitting in advance this is the inferior, far less substantial copy, but still have fun with this anyway. The funny thing is, in many places, they still get away with the gambit.
Tracks like “Sleeping Bag” and “Velcro Fly”, to name two. And “Rough Boy”, despite all of its’ robotic trappings, is still a heartfelt sentiment to listen to after all of these years. Gibbons’ guitar lines definitely makes this track cook.
It would take the band five more years to compile a final commentary on the 80’s, which in some ways I find quite disappointing, since they did play a major effort in shaping the pop culture of the decade.
ONE SENTENCE RE-REVIEW: Take the title literally - this is the sound ZZ Top coasting (or drum machine thwacking) through the 80's.
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