With this masterpiece, the three Texans known as ZZ Top achieved the final international breakthrough in 1983. After more or less successful LP's from 1971-1981 came with this (the 8th) album the change from the rather rough, rough blues to the stadium rock sound, which made ZZ Top world famous.
The whole record is characterized by synthesizer sounds paired with solid hard rock riffs, which, however, sound here and there more like pop than real hard rock. Many critics accused them of this, but this musical reorientation is of course also strongly connected with the electro phase of the eighties. Their first two US Top 10 singles "Legs" (#8) and "Gimme All Your Lovin'" (#10) showed that they were successful with it. They also made their mark in the MTV decade with their videos, which certainly contributed immensely to their popularity and status as cult figures.
The album contains probably the biggest and most famous hits of the trio, the killer riffs in "Sharp Dressed Man" and "Gimme All Your Lovin'" hammered themselves into the heads of a whole generation. But "Got Me Under Pressure" and "Legs" are nothing to scoff at either. The last single was "TV Dinners," a killer groove track.
CD version
Tracklisting:
1. Gimme All Your Lovin'
2. Got Me Under Pressure
3. Sharp Dressed Man
4. I Need You Tonight
5. I Got the Six
6. Legs
7. Thug
8. TV Dinners
9. Dirty Dog
10. If I Could Only Flag Her Down
11. Bad Girl
