ZZ Top - Tres Hombres
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Free Music Notes for Tres Hombres
Free Music Review: Original Remix at last - but.......
Hit: 4 Stars
Finally! My favourite Top album is available on CD. I've been using a vinyl LP transfer to avoid that infamous remix for years!
But what a shame. If this original LP mix had been released about 1990 like it should of it would have been near perfect.
Because this is 2006 and we've had the "Loudness Wars" (go look it up on the web), even a "remaster" that you would expect to be as perfect as a CD could be has had THE treatment. Yes, a volume maximizer has been used to remaster this disc (and the Fandango remaster too).
To be fair to Bob Ludwig it has been done gently. Direct comparison with the vinyl would be required to spot it by listening alone. But it has been done, so I cannot give this 5 stars. And while maximizing has been done, no effort to correct big tape drop-outs like the one in Precious and Grace has been made. Tape drop-outs preserved, dynamic range stomped - why?
The music on this disc is nothing like Eliminator, or even the quirky El Loco. It's a mixture of Texas blues, gospel and hard rock. And even when I don't like what they're singing, I love the sound of the singing and the music.
Free of the revolting super-reverb drumming of the remix, it all really shines. The songs are all short and punchy.
If you want 1970's ZZ Top, I would suggest this one first.
While I'll take the bonus tracks, I can't help thinking they would be better compiled into a ZZ Top live album than drip fed on the remasters. One thing about the live tracks - because ZZ are a three piece, they sure show clearly the amount a multi-tracking the studio tracks have!
Free Music Review: This is (finally) the real deal.
Hit: 5 Stars
For those who (like myself) were disappointed/outraged by the remixing that was done to this fine album when the box set was released some years ago, all is now well. This is the original mix in all it's basic and straight-on splendor. This is the album that "made" ZZ Top, and rightfully so. With classics like "Waiting For The Bus", "Jesus Just Left Chicago", "Beer Drinkers and Hell Raisers", "La Grange" - hell, the entire album, if you buy only one ZZ TOp album, this is the one to get. If you only know the MTV-era ZZ Top, then this will show you what they were really about before they descended into self-parody. This is raw and real.Free Music Review: Bonus tracks
Hit: 5 Stars
The first two bonus tracks are undoubtedly from the KBFH broadcast of the gig at the Capitol Theater, Passaic, New Jersey on August 30th 1980. They sound the same as on that broadcast and, as a clincher, Billy name-checks the venue, if you listen. 'La Grange' wasn't part of that broadcast, AFAIK, so that's been dropped in from elsewhere. Ideally, I like to know exactly from where bonus tracks come, so I was tempted to dock them half a star!
Thanks to these reviews below, I now know that what I was listening to before on CD wasn't the mix as originally released, which is a shabby way to treat fans. I'm just retrospectively miffed: must have been so annoying for those of you who KNEW it wasn't the real deal. (Kiss did that with 'Creatures Of The Night', only the remasters sequence giving us the mix AND running order I had grown up with. I couldn't play the original CD pressing, which was easy to spot as the wrong era was on the cover, so I empathise with you long-time Top fans. Mind, I've now been a fan for 22 years, come to think of it...)
Free Music Review: This is the ZZ Top to own
Hit: 5 Stars
'Tres Hombres' is the real deal. You won't find any of the MTV slickness, gimmicks and cartoonish parody of later ZZ Top here.
'Tres Hombres' is soaked in cigarettes, Mexican beer and border food from a bar band touring small venues and hungry for success. The songs are rock power trio meets the Texas border with fine blues guitar riffs, jamming rythym and eccentric vocals that come together perfectly.
Sadly, except for the follow-up 'Fandango', ZZ Top never came close to being this genuine again.
Free Music Review: A tres too much echo
Hit: 5 Stars
I originally had Tres Hombres on vinyl but when I bought Tres Hombres on CD I discovered much to my dismay that it was a remix. Ugh! I never could get used to it and Tres Hombres went from being one of my favorite albums to a CD I had in my collection that I never listened to. I finally sold that CD a few years back. Some of the original mixes from Tres Hombres were available on the greatest hits and that's what you would normally hear on the radio. Now, someone has come to their senses and made the original, popular mix, available. Buy this, don't buy the remix. This is a classic album. ZZ top weren't as gimicky then and the writing on this album is flawless.