Consumer Guide Album

ZZ Top: El Loco [Warner Bros., 1981]
Their boogie's gotten grander again, more nationwide than homegrown, which at its best--the euphemistically misprised "Tube Snake Boogie" (and did you know "Pearl Necklace" is Southwestern for blow job?)--means only that it packs a more powerful kick. That they're eccentric nonetheless is proven not just by the harmonizer-processed voice of evil shaking the DT's while working street PR, but by the brown-eyed mama who guards their groovy little hippie pad with .44, jeep, and German shepherd. The easy life ain't what it used to be. B+