ZZ Top: XXX : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

The latest offering from this "little ol' band from Texas" zigzags from badass boogie to power balladry to saucy dance antics and back without once breaking character. XXX unfolds with lean and mean potency: "Poke Chop Sandwich" is a combo of bristling riffs and juicy rhythm delivered with a nudge and a wink. Despite its title, "Dreadmonboogaloo" has nothing to do with reggae, but it shimmies with all the gusto of an electronic club tune, albeit in organic ZZ Top style. Of the four live tracks included, the standout is a raunchy re-combobulation of Elvis Presley's classic "(Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear," in which the trio turbocharges the coy pop-a-billy tune with the libidinous force of "Steamroller Blues." Coming nearly thirty years after Billy Gibbons, Dusty Hill and Frank Beard released their first album, XXX is proof that these rootsy Texans are still one of America's foremost blues-rock outfits.