''Recycler'' is the tenth studio album by the American rock band
ZZ Top
ZZ Top is an American rock band formed in 1969 in Houston, Texas. For 51 years, they comprised vocalist-guitarist Billy Gibbons, drummer Frank Beard and vocalist-bassist Dusty Hill, until Hill's death in 2021. ZZ Top developed a signature sound ...
, released in October 1990. It was the last album to utilize the band's synthesizer-driven production style which began on ''
Eliminator'', and marked a return to the band's
blues
Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...
roots.
[
The band had a cameo in the 1990 movie '']Back to the Future Part III
''Back to the Future Part III'' is a 1990 American science fiction Western film and the final installment of the ''Back to the Future'' trilogy. The film was directed by Robert Zemeckis, and stars Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Mary Stee ...
'' playing an "old west" version of "Doubleback
"Doubleback" is a song by ZZ Top from the 1990 album '' Recycler''. It was released as a lead single and was also featured in the film ''Back to the Future Part III''.
''Back to the Future Part III''
The regular version of the song plays over t ...
" along with some local musicians. (The regular version of the song plays over the credits). The music video for "Doubleback" also had clips from the movie and was included on the DVD. There were five hit singles from the album: "Doubleback" (No. 1 on the Album Rock Tracks
Mainstream Rock is a music chart in ''Billboard'' magazine that ranks the most-played songs on mainstream rock radio stations in the United States, a category that combines the formats of active rock and heritage rock. The chart was launched in Ma ...
for five weeks), "Concrete and Steel" (No. 1 on the Album Rock Tracks
Mainstream Rock is a music chart in ''Billboard'' magazine that ranks the most-played songs on mainstream rock radio stations in the United States, a category that combines the formats of active rock and heritage rock. The chart was launched in Ma ...
for four weeks), "Burger Man", "Give It Up", and " My Head's in Mississippi" (No. 1 on the Album Rock Tracks
Mainstream Rock is a music chart in ''Billboard'' magazine that ranks the most-played songs on mainstream rock radio stations in the United States, a category that combines the formats of active rock and heritage rock. The chart was launched in Ma ...
for six weeks).
Music videos were also made for "My Head's in Mississippi", "Burger Man" and " Give It Up".
In the UK, it was the band's third album to be certified by the British Phonographic Industry
British Phonographic Industry (BPI) is the British recorded music industry's Trade association. It runs the BRIT Awards, the Classic BRIT Awards, National Album Day, is home to the Mercury Prize, and co-owns the Official Charts Company with th ...
attaining Silver (60,000 units) in 1990.
Production and recording
In a 2008 interview, Billy Gibbons stated, "Recycler was interesting to make, because initially we planned to follow the lineage established in ''Eliminator'' and ''Afterburner''. We had written a couple of highly structured pop tunes in our studio in Houston. Then we went out to Los Angeles for a couple of months and got into the whole sequencer, everything-in-its-place thing. But when we arrived in Memphis to finish the record, we slid into a different mode. While we were waiting for all of our high-tech gear to arrive, we set up in a circle and started playing and jamming as a band. The sound, even though it was rougher and looser, felt right in every way. The results of some of those sessions can be heard on cuts like '2000 Blues' and 'My Head’s in Mississippi.' Both are reminiscent of our earlier music, which is why we call ''Recycler'' our ''Tres Hombres/Eliminator'' album."
He continued, "We didn’t abandon the ground we covered on ''Eliminator'' and ''Afterburner''—you can still hear the sequencers and synthesizers—but they’re much more unobtrusive. We allowed some of the rougher elements of the band to come shining through. 'My Head’s in Mississippi,' which was one of the first completed tracks on the album, is a great example of how we mixed the new with the old. Initially, it was a straight-ahead boogie-woogie. Then Frank stepped in and threw in those highly gated electronic drum fills, which modernized the track.
Not counting the preproduction time in Houston and Los Angeles, it took us four months to make. ''Recycler'' was one of our longer projects. I think it took extra time because we moved to Memphis Sound studios on Beale Street. That area is chock full of distractions."
The sessions ultimately saw the band returning to their blues
Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...
roots, and would be the last ZZ Top album to utilize the synthesized production style of their previous two albums, which was subsequently completely abandoned in favor of a more roots-oriented style on their subsequent albums.
Reception
Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Stephen Thomas Erlewine (; born June 18, 1973) is an American music critic and senior editor for the online music database AllMusic. He is the author of many artist biographies and record reviews for AllMusic, as well as a freelance writer, occ ...
of AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...
retrospectively gave it 2 stars out of 5, stating: "The continuation of '' Eliminators synthesized blues
Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...
made sense on ''Afterburner
An afterburner (or reheat in British English) is an additional combustion component used on some jet engines, mostly those on military supersonic aircraft. Its purpose is to increase thrust, usually for supersonic flight, takeoff, and comba ...
'', since it arrived two years after its predecessor. ZZ Top's choice to pursue that direction on ''Recycler'' is puzzling, since a full five years separate this from ''Afterburner''. It's not just that they continue to follow this path; it's that they embalm it, creating a record that may be marginally ballsier than its predecessor, but lacking the sense of goofy fun and warped ambition that made ''Afterburner'' fascinating. ..And the worst thing about it all, it doesn't seem like the band realizes how uncomfortably ironic the title of "Recycler" is." Erlewine did however note that "Doubleback" and especially "My Head's in Mississippi" were standouts, and " Give It Up" also got an "''AMG Pick''", meaning that it was another highlight.[
]Robert Christgau
Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most well-known and influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and ...
gave it a one star honorable mention, meaning "A worthy effort consumers attuned to its overriding aesthetic or individual vision may well like" and called "Concrete and Steel" and "Burger Man" as the strongest tracks.
The album peaked at No. 6 on the ''Billboard'' 200, at No. 8 on the UK Albums Chart
The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts C ...
and at No. 27 on the Australian Albums chart.
Track listing
All songs by Billy Gibbons
William Frederick Gibbons (born December 16, 1949) is an American musician who is the guitarist and lead singer of the rock band ZZ Top. He began his career in the band the Moving Sidewalks, which recorded a full-length album entitled, ''Flas ...
, Dusty Hill
Joe Michael "Dusty" Hill (May 19, 1949 – July 28, 2021) was an American musician who was the bassist of the rock band ZZ Top for more than 50 years. He also sang lead and backing vocals and played keyboards.
Hill was born in Dallas, Texas, an ...
and Frank Beard.
Personnel
*Billy Gibbons
William Frederick Gibbons (born December 16, 1949) is an American musician who is the guitarist and lead singer of the rock band ZZ Top. He began his career in the band the Moving Sidewalks, which recorded a full-length album entitled, ''Flas ...
– guitar, lead vocals
*Dusty Hill
Joe Michael "Dusty" Hill (May 19, 1949 – July 28, 2021) was an American musician who was the bassist of the rock band ZZ Top for more than 50 years. He also sang lead and backing vocals and played keyboards.
Hill was born in Dallas, Texas, an ...
– bass, keyboards, vocals
* Frank Beard – drums, percussion
Production
*Producer – Bill Ham
Billy Mack Ham (February 4, 1937 – June 20, 2016) was an American music impresario, best known as the manager, producer, and image-maker for the blues-rock band ZZ Top. Ham also gained prominence in the country music world by discovering and man ...
*Engineer – Terry Manning
Terry Manning is an American photographer, composer, singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer, audio engineer, and visual artist. In a career spanning more than 50 years, he has worked with Led Zeppelin, Iron Maiden, Bryan Adams, ...
*Art work - Barry E. Jackson
Charts
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
Certifications
References
{{Authority control
ZZ Top albums
1990 albums
Albums produced by Bill Ham
Warner Records albums