XXX (ZZ Top album)
Occupation
- Billy Gibbons: Vocals, Guitar
- Dusty Hill: vocals, bass
- Frank Beard: Drums
XXX is the thirteenth studio album by American blues-rock band ZZ Top. It was released in September 1999 on RCA Records to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the band. The album title means " 30" in Roman numerals. From the album were about 140,000 units in the U.S. in the first three years, sold, about half of the sales of the previous album Rhythmeen.
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It was originally planned to record a live album with new songs. Later, the band decided to start the entire album with eight studio recordings, followed by four live recordings. These were recorded at gigs in small clubs. The chorus to Hey Mr. Millionaire sang Billy Gibbons along with Jeff Beck, later participation Gibbons failed on an album of Beck, because Gibbons was staying in Europe.
Coinciding with ZZ Top, there was the rapper Juvenile in the Ardent Studios and the musicians exchanged ideas. This took place after Gibbons elements of new music styles such as hip-hop input into the music, which is why a mixture of early ZZ Top had arisen and modern music.
After the release of the album the band went on a U.S. tour with Lynyrd Skynyrd. The bands had played at least five appearances in the week so by the end of 1999, about 50 joint shows.
Title list
Reception
Especially the reviews in North America fell out badly. Stephen Thomas Erlewine complained in his review that the band on the album sounded stiff. He thinks that this could be not only the weak songwriting, because a band like ZZ Top should be able to take audible songs by third-rate compositions. Erlewine says that ZZ Top was much too focused on organic sound to play the blues as it would do similar veterans of this style. The Austin Chronicle writes in his review that ZZ Top though an institution of the Texas music is, it does not always show on the album. How could a just the frenetic bustling Beatbox when going through the track list falter, and the live recordings could not keep up with hits like Tube Snake Boogie or Got Me Under Pressure. For Peter Bongartz from the magazine The Schallplattenmann XXX is with his " straw dry [n ] Top Boogie " the best ZZ Top album in years, the album sounded " never stale, but incredibly fresh ."