ZZ Top

Antenna

ZZ try to return to their roots. Kind of. Released back in early 1994 as the band’s debut on RCA, Antenna was meant to be some kind of renaissance for this little ol’ band from Texas, in that it supposedly upped the raw blues rock feel that had been increasingly missing from their preceding albums and dialled back the synths and electronic production trickery.

While the former is fairly accurate, it’s a shame the latter isn’t truer. Stripping the sound back, guitarist Billy Gibbons does indeed pile on the dirty blues riffs, but there is still an overbearing tendency towards unnecessary cyber-meddling with Dusty Hill’s bass and Frank Beard’s drums – Antenna Head sounds like he’s hitting the proverbial biscuit tins with knitting needles, if indeed he’s playing at all. Ultimately, however, what really hampers this album is a simple lack of outstanding tunes.