Tejas - ZZ TOP***

Its Only Love/Arrested For Driving While Blind/El Diablo/Snappy Kakkie/Enjoy & Get It On/Ten Dollar Man/Pan Am Highway Blues/Avalon Hideaway/She's A Heartbreaker/Asleep In The Desert

Tejas has been described as a transitional album from the blues-rock band ZZ Top. They would go on to enjoy greater commercial success with the adoption of a more electronic blues sound. (US: 17)

“Tejas drips with flavour. The album features spicy cuts of smokin' Southern-fried barbequed Tex-Mex blues, as only the legendary ZZ Top can pump out on a consistent basis.”

“They are on the cusp, the eighties are coming with huge commercial success for these dudes, and this long player shows a little of what is to come. But they still rock with that great south western blues rock sound that they do so well. Some real toe-tappers on this release, so turn up the volume.”

“Tejas is a transition album for Texas rockers ZZ Top. It is the beginning of their step away from the blues-rock that had brought them fame and a lot of record sales, and towards the 1980s electronic blues that would eventually make them a worldwide phenomenon.”

“This album is as close to progressive rock as ZZ Top ever got, even though the band sacrifices none of it's down and dirty aesthetic. The songs are structured and arranged very creatively, not every tune is a verse-chorus-verse-chorus affair. The group are able to create wonderful, often subtle atmospherics, evoking dusty, Texas landscapes, amongst other things.”

“The blues-rock is no longer quite as straight as it used to be, and where it is, it's not entirely satisfying. They also begin to play around a bit with the kind of studio gimmickry that would spoil later albums.”

“There is a serious lack of energy that drove the band on their earlier works. Fair enough, the boogie and blues is a limited style to work with but ZZ Top to this point worked it well and came up with some interesting themes to hold the attention span, injected with some subtle humour. Unfortunately Tejas lacks much of the inspiration normally associated with the band.”