Thought to be a stopgap record, El Loco further injects elements which would soon drive music fans to record stores in droves in search of ZZ Top albums – New Wave experiments (“Groovy Little Hippie Pad”) and even more pronounced sexual escapades (“Pearl Necklace”). Not their best, but still interesting.
My pick for best ZZ Top album of the early years. The free-wheeling, outlaw spirit of Texas blues is amplified to not only higher energy levels but also from a number of different, diverse angles in what ends up being one of the most appealing packages the Top has ever sprung on the public.
The second Bloodrock record in their post-progressive phase (and that's debatable) is something else altogether - a real serious move away from the original sound - unlike the previous album, where there were still some links. Now, it is indisputable - the Ham/Hill alliance has taken over - with loud guitar relegated to the background, and in its' place a very high-brow sort of art/jazz/pop sound, which definitely crosses over into guilty pleasure realms, if unintentionally.
People hear this one-off style and tend to throw it in the Kansas/Styx pile, which doesn't make much sense, because those bands were really non-entities at this point and time. I actually think it's closer in spirit to Tull and Traffic, and attempts to be more radio-friendly, but that is balanced out by the same aloof, collegiate demeanor which made the previous album difficult to approach. Still, quite a few of these tracks could have been hits in either a parallel universe somewhere, or maybe in this world if things had went correctly for the band, because they are well-crafted and entertaining.
The first side of the album is not as strong as the second side, although there are some moments. "It's Gonna Be Love" kicks off the affair on a very strange note - not sure how to describe this one, what with Ham's vocal gymnastics and the quasi-disco/funk feel of the thing - overall, it's hard to fit the prevailing image of the band with how the song plays out.
"Sunday Song" is somewhat better, but again, this is one of those happy feeling-yet-ironic tunes which may be difficult to take at face value, and sort of has an early 70's Beach Boys feel about it. This is followed by three songs which feel like they fit together in a mini-suite of tracks - "Parallax", "Voices", and a cover of "Eleanor Rigby". All three generally prescribe to a sort-of progressive/sort-of folk/overall mixed bag pattern which puts Ham and Hill at the forefront above everything else.
The second side is better, just because the material is stronger, in my opinion. "Stilled by Whirlwind Tongues" has a lot of political and social implications, and structurally is similar to something like "Parallax", but the performances are much more forceful and pronounced.
"Guess What I Am" is even better, straddling the line between complete whack job and undeniable classic, especially when Ham acrobatically hits the high notes in the chorus section. Here, the band shows they are unafraid to put it all on the line, critics be damned.
The last track of real note would have to be "Lady of Love", which has quite an R&B feel with Ham's sax, and is one of the tracks where, I thought with the proper backing could have been a hit tune.
One other thing worth mentioning is the cover, which, like the last album, completely reflects the band's move to art rock in a big way. I can only imagine the look on the average record buyer's face back in the day, though, when confronted with such an image, and even now, I have to admit it gives me a feeling of a group that was a little too above it all for its' own good.
If Bloodrock U.S.A. was intended to be "At Last - Another Amazing Adventure to Open Your Mind" as the tag line read on the grotesque cover, then it's a bold, desperate, last-chance gamble, smack dab in the middle of an era dealing in treachery, lies, and deceit. The band's first three albums feel like half-consistent, backroom warm-ups, compared to this cold and anguished tome, where finally all cogs of the Bloodrock monster machine are working effortlessly and in unison. Interestingly enough, it also makes a complete mockery out of the second version of Bloodrock as well, which was more political and environmental in their aims, but far less beliveable. No one line sums it up better than this from "American Burn": "The end of your life is a steal". That was the prevailing wisdom of the time, and coincidentally, not too dissimilar from the present day, either. A sad, paranoid, inevitable sort of doomed magic drives this one to the top of my personal best-of list, as the original lineup would crumble mere weeks after the album was completed.