# xmcd
#
# Track frame offsets:
#	150
#	18633
#	34758
#	51980
#	73913
#	87743
#	106250
#	122020
#	137980
#	152605
#
# Disc length: 2256 seconds
#
# Revision: 15
# Processed by: cddbd v1.5.2PL0 Copyright (c) Steve Scherf et al.
# Submitted via: EasyCDDAExtractor 5.1.0
#
DISCID=8108ce0a,8b08d00a,8f08ce0a
DTITLE=ZZ Top / Afterburner 
DYEAR=1985
DGENRE=Rock
TTITLE0=SLEEPING BAG
TTITLE1=STAGES
TTITLE2=WOKE UP WITH WOOD
TTITLE3=ROUGH BOY
TTITLE4=CAN'T STOP ROCKIN'
TTITLE5=PLANET OF WOMEN
TTITLE6=I GOT THE MESSAGE
TTITLE7=VELCRO FLY
TTITLE8=DIPPING LOW (IN THE LAP OF LUXURY)
TTITLE9=DELIRIOUS
EXTD=Afterburner (Japanese Pressing)\n1985 Warner Bros. Records, Inc.\n\nOrigi
EXTD=nally Released 1985\nCD Edition Released 1985\n\nAMG EXPERT REVIEW: Well,
EXTD= if you just had your biggest hit ever, you'd probably try to replicate i
EXTD=t, too. And if you were praised for being visionary because you played al
EXTD=l your blues grooves to a slightly sequenced beat, you'd probably be temp
EXTD=ted to not just continue in that direction, but to tighten the sequencer 
EXTD=and graft on synthesizers, since it'll all signal how futuristic you are.
EXTD= While you're at it, you might visualize how space age this all is by tur
EXTD=ning your signature car into a space shuttle. If you look at things that 
EXTD=way, then Afterburner, ZZ Top's follow-up to their blockbuster Eliminator
EXTD=, makes sense -- they're just giving the people more of what they want. P
EXTD=roblem is, no matter how much you dress ZZ Top up, they're still ZZ Top. 
EXTD=Sometimes they can trick you into thinking they're a little flashier than
EXTD= usual, but they're still a lil' ol' blues band from Texas, kicking out b
EXTD=lues-rockers. And blues-rock just doesn't kick when it's synthesized, eve
EXTD=n if ZZ Top's grooves always bordered on robotic. So, Afterburner, their 
EXTD=most synthetic album, will not please most ZZ Top fans, even if it did go
EXTD= platinum several time over and reached number four. That's all just a si
EXTD=gn of the times, when even hard rock bands had to sound as slick as synth
EXTD= pop, complete with clanging DX-7s and cavernous drums. As an artifact of
EXTD= that time, Afterburner is pretty good -- never has a hard rock album sou
EXTD=nded so artificial, nor has a nominal blues-rock album sounded so devoid 
EXTD=of blues. Apart from the chugging "Sleeping Bag," not even the singles so
EXTD=und like ZZ Top (though "Dipping Low (In the Lap of Luxury" is a blatant 
EXTD="Gimme All Your Lovin'" rewrite): the terrific post-new wave rocker "Stag
EXTD=es" is the poppiest thing they ever cut, the ballad "Rough Boy" is far re
EXTD=moved from slow blues, and the full-fledged synth dance of "Velcro Fly" i
EXTD=s a true mind-bender. All this means that Afterburner is merely a product
EXTD= of its time -- the only record ZZ Top could have made at the time, but i
EXTD=t hardly exists out of that time.  -- Stephen Thomas Erlewine\n\nAMAZON.C
EXTD=OM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nMonster Sequel, February 19, 2007\nReviewer: therosen
EXTD= "therosen" (New York, NY United States)\nAfterburner, the sequel to ZZ T
EXTD=op's pop-breakout Eliminator, is a solid album in it's own right. It comb
EXTD=ines ZZ-Topish humor (Woke up with Wood), instant additions to ZZ's class
EXTD=ic lists (Planet of Women & Sleeping Bag), songs that take a while to gro
EXTD=w on you (Rough Boy) and even a failed attempt to start a dance craze (th
EXTD=e Velcro Fly). \n\nIt's not the bluesiest they have, not the poppest, and
EXTD= certainly not the best, but it's still a great album.\n\nAMAZON.COM CUST
EXTD=OMER REVIEW\nAn 80s Classic That Hasn't Aged Well, October 22, 2004\nRevi
EXTD=ewer: Andre LeBlanc (North Dakota)\nI was in junior high when this album 
EXTD=came out, and I played my cassette copy to death back then. I thought the
EXTD= song "Stages" was the coolest song I had ever heard. I recently bought t
EXTD=he CD after not listening to the album in over 10 years. As much as I lov
EXTD=ed it in 1985, the music has not aged well at all. The heavy synthesized 
EXTD=sound that was great back then sounds uninteresting and bland today. Howe
EXTD=ver, the CD does bring back a lot of memories. If you grew up during the 
EXTD=80s and want to return to those days (at least in spirit), go ahead and p
EXTD=ick this up. Otherwise, don't bother.\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nOut 
EXTD=of this World, March 29, 2003\nReviewer: Jerry Fry (Freeman, MO USA)\nNow
EXTD= Eliminators are flying into outer space. That's cool but what happened? 
EXTD=ZZ Top became more marketable in the '80s and raked in a lot of jack. The
EXTD= space rock boogie was a good gimmick. It sold well, these guys threw awa
EXTD=y their razors and dipped low in the lap of luxury. But this is exactly t
EXTD=he kind of "Stages" a band goes through. No longer a hungry band and it s
EXTD=ounds like it. "Rough Boy" got played constantly and the video wasn't bad
EXTD= but this isn't the ZZ Top I like to remember. Somehow it seemed like thi
EXTD=s wasn't a bad direction for them to go. But that's where it ended. The f
EXTD=ollowing album I believe was "Recycler" and that's pretty much what I did
EXTD= with it.\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nThe third star is for having the
EXTD= [courage] to make this album., July 14, 2002\nReviewer: Erik K (Albuquer
EXTD=que, NM.)\nIn the discography of ZZ Top, this is where things got truly w
EXTD=ierd. ZZ Top may not be considered one of the top groundbreaking rock and
EXTD= roll acts in a historical sense, but Billy Gibbons IS considered one of 
EXTD=the great rock and roll guitarists. This album is where his playing went 
EXTD=from it's bluesy best to his bland-est. He apparently stopped thinking of
EXTD= open Texas plains and empty highways and put himself on the creative equ
EXTD=ivalent of an MTV space shuttle launchpad. There IS still an obvious conn
EXTD=ection here, re; "Houston we have reached ZZ orbit" or something to that 
EXTD=effect, especially considering the success of Eliminator (remember, in th
EXTD=e Reagan era, the space shuttle, MTV and rap music were new..). But the m
EXTD=usic of Afterburner, although entertaining, is mostly a lamentable soft-c
EXTD=ore foray into dance/techno style electronic rhythms and hip/hoppy stuff 
EXTD=(hip/hoppy..was he any relation to Trigger?). The hard-core, don't [care]
EXTD= WHAT yall' think individualism of past ZZ releases is watered down so mu
EXTD=ch that the only people ZZ [angered] with this album were their fan base.
EXTD= For crying out loud, Frank Beard, one of the best drummers in Rock and R
EXTD=oll, was largely replaced by digital drum machines to make this album. No
EXTD=w, I am a believer in artistic freedom, and in creative pursuits change i
EXTD=s sometimes neccessary and a healthy thing. But when the result is someth
EXTD=ing as limpid as "Velcro Fly", one has to wonder.\n\nROLLING STONE REVIEW
EXTD=\nThe source of ZZ Top's appeal was never any secret to the beer drinkers
EXTD= and hell raisers who worshiped them the instant the band began to boogie
EXTD= fifteen years ago. Since then there have been classic stunts (the 1976 t
EXTD=our featuring livestock and snakes) and classic licks ("Tush" and "LaGran
EXTD=ge"). But it took their last (and ninth) album, Eliminator, to turn the l
EXTD=i'l' ol' trio from Texas into everybody's guilty pleasure.\n\nTheir new L
EXTD=P, Afterburner, has enough oomph, wacky rhythms and super guitar to satis
EXTD=fy at least half of the more than 5 million customers who bought Eliminat
EXTD=or. But while ZZ's hot rod can make this trip, it doesn't ride really wel
EXTD=l on Afterburner's Autobabn.\n\nTop Top Billy Gibbons has sacrificed the 
EXTD=chemistry -- and, tragically, the heart -- of the band to technology. The
EXTD= synthesizers and drum machines that helped modernize a Cream-vintage pow
EXTD=er trio and subtly reinforced Eliminator's tracks have now apparently rep
EXTD=laced bassist Dusty Hill and drummer Frank Beard. Gibbons' electronic toy
EXTD=s may give him few arguments, note-for-note perfection and tremendous fle
EXTD=xibility (for example, in reshuffling ZZ's traditional beat into radical 
EXTD=syncopations like the wild intro to "Sleeping Bag"). But this is music th
EXTD=at should feel as if it's being made by men, not machines.\n\nAfterburner
EXTD='s fake drums sound thin, and the keyboards are just plain tacky. They fr
EXTD=equently overwhelm material that is otherwise rather nice. "Rough Boy" (o
EXTD=nly the second ballad ZZ has ever recorded), swollen with inarticulate lo
EXTD=nging, might be more moving with a stripped-down arrangement. The same go
EXTD=es for "Stages," a more upbeat love song that's also a departure from ZZ'
EXTD=s typically goofy lyrics and raunchy humor. Coming from a single man who'
EXTD=s played one-night stands since his teens, "Stages, keep on changing/Stag
EXTD=es, rearranging love" is a knowing assessment of romance on the run. Not 
EXTD=only would the yucky synthesizers be better off piped into a shopping mal
EXTD=l (or onto a Journey album), but Gibbons' bluesworn voice is so mechanica
EXTD=lly treated that its emotional impact is deadened.\n\nHe doesn't suffer a
EXTD=s badly as Dusty Hill, though. One of the highlights of ZZ concerts is th
EXTD=e way Gibbons and Hill almost finish one another's sentences; here Gibbon
EXTD=s has kept all of the leads to himself. Hill, a great rave-and-shouter in
EXTD= the Little Richard tradition, makes two cameo appearances, on "Delirious
EXTD=" and "Can't Stop Rockin'." But he sounds distant and dispirited -- as if
EXTD= Randy Bachman had telephoned in his vocals for him.\n\nAmid all this mac
EXTD=hine-made music, "Velcro Fly" is strikingly alive. Not only does Gibbons'
EXTD= manic buzz constantly remind you of why he entered the guitar players' p
EXTD=antheon eons ago, but this is the rate cut where you hear something like 
EXTD=the gut thump of a real bass, while the totally demented instrumental bre
EXTD=ak sounds like Prince taking "My Sharona" and bouncing it off the walls. 
EXTD=The lyrics may be a little too out there (they're in the same gonzo mode 
EXTD=as "Cheap Sunglasses" and "TV Dinners") to make this a bid for the single
EXTD=s charts, however.\n\nThe chuggy tempo and high, happy harmonies of "Dipp
EXTD=ing Low" and "I Got the Message" are directly patterned on "Gimme All You
EXTD=r Lovin'" and "Sharp Dressed Man." "Can't Stop Rockin'" is an obvious set
EXTD= closer or encore, but it's a little too ordinary ("I can't stop rockin' 
EXTD=baby, 'til I lose my mind") for a band of this stature to include on a st
EXTD=udio album now. Less ordinary is "Woke Up with Wood," perhaps the most in
EXTD=cendiary rocker on Afterburner. Unfortunately, it's yet another addition 
EXTD=to the list of dirty jokes that have long been the band's stock in trade.
EXTD= ZZ's catalog probably describes as many sex acts ("Tube Snake Boogie," "
EXTD=I Got the Six," "Pearl Necklace") as Masters and Johnson's. But where ear
EXTD=ly songs like "Tush" and "LaGrange" were rites of passage, and "Pearl Nec
EXTD=klace" might possibly be interpreted as an invitation to a shopping spree
EXTD=, "Woke Up with Wood" is just silly. Could it be time for ZZ Top to grow 
EXTD=up?\n\nGibbons may have moved into the Eighties with all of the latest gi
EXTD=mmicks and equipment, but his consciousness is stuck in the Dark Ages. "P
EXTD=lanet of Women" will undoubtedly appeal to boys of all ages, and lines li
EXTD=ke "Send a straitjacket, something in a shade of gray" are good for a few
EXTD= giggles. But what's really so funny about a narrator who complains he ca
EXTD=n't make it with every woman he sees and confesses he can't distinguish b
EXTD=etween a "diamond" of a woman and a "hole in the ground"?\n\nThe band has
EXTD= other questions to consider. How are they going to perform this material
EXTD=? Afterburner uses so many synthesizers they may have to rely even more h
EXTD=eavily on prerecorded tapes than they did on the Eliminator tour. Maybe t
EXTD=he plan is to turn into cartoons we'll see only on video and, word has it
EXTD=, film. And if Gibbons is so itchy to stretch beyond the trio format and 
EXTD=the technical limitations of his partners, why doesn't he go solo? Then a
EXTD=gain, Afterburner may simply represent a transitional phase in this gifte
EXTD=d eccentric's development as well as a tricky period in ZZ Top's continui
EXTD=ng evolution from bell-bottom-blues band to sharp-dressed pop machine. (R
EXTD=S 462 - Dec 5, 1985) -- DEBORAH FROST
EXTT0=
EXTT1=
EXTT2=
EXTT3=
EXTT4=
EXTT5=
EXTT6=
EXTT7=
EXTT8=
EXTT9=
PLAYORDER=
