ZZ Top: Texicali EP

Four-track taste of riffs to come.

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It’s no surprise that, months ahead of their long-awaited album with Rick Rubin producing, the tres hombres have opted to release a four-track taster EP which promises more signature rough-edged snarl than the whole of 2003’s Mescalero.

Opener I Gotsta Get Paid is as stripped-down and sizzling as it gets; Chartreuse a chugging, fuzz-filled ditty full of tequila-soaked swagger that’ll make you want to shift into fifth.

While the growling roadhouse blues of Consumption conjures the classic, full-throttle bad-assery of former ZZ glories, Over You, a Tom Waits-style ballad, breaks new, surprisingly melancholic ground. ‘I’ve got to find the strength to move, I’ve gotta get up and get over you,’ sings a gravel-throated Billy Gibbons with the forlorn resignation that can only come from 41 years of fast cars and faster women.

And it’s proof that the little ol’ band from Texas still have some songwriting gas in the tank.

Alexander Milas

Alexander Milas is an erstwhile archaeologist, broadcaster, music journalist and award-winning decade-long ex-editor-in-chief of Metal Hammer magazine. In 2017 he founded Twin V, a creative solutions and production company.  In 2019 he launched the World Metal Congress, a celebration of heavy metal’s global impact and an exploration of the issues affecting its community. His other projects include Space Rocks, a festival space exploration in partnership with the European Space Agency and the Heavy Metal Truants, a charity cycle ride which has raised over a million pounds for four children's charities which he co-founded with Iron Maiden manager Rod Smallwood. He is Eddietor of the official Iron Maiden Fan Club, head of the Heavy Metal Cycling Club, and works closely with Earth Percent, a climate action group. He has a cat named Angus.