ZZ Top is a band I have to shake my head at these days.

Thier early stuff is legendary. That tasty Les Paul tone for days combined with the best blues rock of the era. Lets not forget Billy Gibbons stellar playing and singing.

Fastforward nearly 35 years. We've come through the power trio era, to the MTV fuzzy guitar/synth/fake drum era to the 'we've rediscovered our roots' era. Where are we now? A band that has lost their identity and is just lumbering on to lumber on.

I just picked this disc up. I'm not impressed one iota. Its one of the most bland listens I've heard recently. Billy Gibbon's penchant for all the latest guitar toys makes his guitar lose all the soul he once oozed. Lets not forget his vocals too. He often growls in the songs which really does nothing for me.

Lets face it, ZZ Top extended thier career with the image makeover in the early 80s. Now they are no better than any other generic rock. Nothing timeless is here. Nothing that gets your attention and makes you sit up. ZZ is now just a band that relies on fuzz gutars and uninspired songwriting to hook you.

Its really sad too. Once it was the total opposite.

This is the best ZZ Top CD for over a decade. The humour is there, the dirty fuzz sounds are there, the techno beats are not.

Worthy of more stars except the CD quality sucks. I at first thought it was just "volume maximised", ie. the recorded level is set way to high. But no, gross distortion has been introduced by deliberate digital hard limiting, the amount varying from track to track, presumably depending on how "gritty" they wanted each track to sound. The result is just bad sound. This is the worst mastered CD I have come across.

If they wanted a gritty sound, the correct way to do it is before/during mixing. Apply hard limiting to the guitar, not the whole damn thing. Yuk.

Avoid European copies - they have the added benefit of "copy protection" deliberately introduced data errors.

I've been listening to the boys for 30 years and, I have to admit, they frustrated me with some of the material on Antenna and XXX. But Mescalero has a lot of harmonica and steel pedal guitar on it, getting back to a Texas Blues sound but mellower and slower than Rhythmeen. "Piece" has some pretty passages and a metal-sounding rhythm groove near the end. Billy Gibbons' Gretsch guitar sounds awesome on this whole recording, especially his leads. "Que Lastima" kind of grows on you. "What is it Kid" has a great bass line: go Dusty! "Tramp" takes an old blues progression and makes it sound positively innovative. I love that song;Billy alternates between his low-pitched speaking voice and a higher singing voice. The ending chord progression on Liquor is awesome, even though the song borrows the same fadeout technology the band used on "Loaded," it works. But don't change CD's just yet: the hidden track under #16 is really well done. I'm sure you'll know the song. All I can say is, you guys let me down for a long time, but this release is really good. I'm really happy with it.

I give ZZ Top high marks for being creative with "Mescalero", but they could have shaved six songs off this disc and had an excellent cd. It is overly long at 16 tracks, and I've decided what would have made a great 10 track cd would be the following: "Mescalero", "Alley-Gator", "Buck Nekkid", "Me So Stupid", "What It Is Kid", "Que Lastima", "Tramp", "Crunchy", "Dusted" and "Liqour". The other six tracks sound like album filler. Despite these shortcomings, which you can program out, "Mescalero" appears fresher than the last four ZZ Top outings 1999's "XXX", 1996's "Rhythmeen", 1994's "Antenna" and 1990's "Recycler". "Mescalero" finds the band producing themselves and getting back to grittier, bluesier rock and roll with less technology. Vocals are deep, bluesy rasps, guitars sound like they're coming from blown amps and the drums create filthy, greasy beats on many of the tracks. This is what ZZ Top excel at, plus the occasional witty lyric to boot. The boys keep rocking, reaffirming their future place in the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame, but I keep waiting for them to surpass their last two solid works, 1985's "Afterburner" and 1983's "Eliminator".

Back in the days when ZZ Top released "Eliminator", it sure was a ground breaking album. After that I believe ZZ Top lost something. "Afterburner" seemed to be a pale copy of the mentioned "Eliminator" and even `tho albums like "Recycler" and "Antenna" had some good moments they didn't reach the sky. I kinda lost my interest in ZZ Top so when I put "Mascalero" on, my expectations were rather low. I must say that I was pleasant surprised as the title track kicked off - boy , what a groove! The sound (distorted guitar) of the album is quite modern so you might as well think you've blown your speakers. Some may think this modern sound is a step forward while others think it's crap - it's up to you to decide. Apart from the sound, I think ZZ Top have written a bunch of good songs, for example "Mascalero", "Alley-Gator", "Buck nekkid", "Going so good", "Punk ass boyfriend", "What it is kid", and "Dusted". Sometimes I wish ZZ Top would have gone for a more stripped down sound - the pre Eliminator approach, and from time to time I tend to believe that Gibbons & Co are as much interested in technology as in music. All in all, "Mascalero" is a good album but no masterpiece and certainly not as good as the old days when ZZ Top delivered songs like "Jesus just left Chicago", "Waiting for the bus", "Tush", "Blue jean blues", "Ten dollar man", "A fool for your stockings" etc.