ZZ Top - Tres Hombres
|
List Price: Our Price: $6.99 You Save: $0.99 (12%) Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Buy Used: from $3.85 (click here) Category: Music CD See more new music releases 
|
|---|
Buy this Music CD at online store in your country
Canadian Music Store
Canadian Music Store
Free Music Notes for Tres Hombres
Free Music Review: Mixed feelings
Hit: 3 Stars
this record is far to be perfect, there is plenty of songs on it for which i don't care for; however i give 3 stars for the following reasons :
- Billy Gibbons is a good guitarist and i like his guitar tone and playing.
- the two first songs are excellent especially the enjoyable 'Jesus just left Chicago', a good song with excellent guitar playing.
- Shiek is a decent song but no more.
- the rest is in my opinion forgettable (included the bad live set).
Free Music Review: Now even Hotter, Bluer and more Righteous
Hit: 5 Stars
ZZ Top's Tres Hombres is a classic rock album, perhaps one of the all-time best. I consider it ZZ Top's best album, being the finest representation of their sound and containing their highest-quality material as far as both performances and songwriting are concerned. Their second album, Rio Grande Mud is almost as good, however Tres Hombres gets an edge because the songs are more instantly memorable and are all high quality. There is not a single weak moment on Tres Hombres. Every cut is top notch. There's quite a bit of variety too, from the mid-tempo blues of Jesus Just Left Chicago to the hard rock of Beer Drinkers and Hell Raisers to the Memphis soul of Hot, Blue and Righteous to the John Lee Hooker boogie of La Grange. Even lesser known album cuts like Precious and Grace, Shiek and Master of Sparks are excellent. Forget the compilations, if you're looking for the absolute best of the Little Old Band from Texas, look no further. Tres Hombres is it. It is an essential album than any fan of blues-oriented rock and roll needs to have.
Finally after many years, the original sound mix is available on CD. This new remastered edition eliminates the horrible 1980s remix which piled on echo and fake drums, completely ruining the raw, bluesy feel of the original album. Finally, that mistake has been corrected to the delight and relief of ZZ Top fans everywhere. It's just too bad that it took over a decade for it to happen. The new CD sounds great and includes very informative liner notes giving background information on the recording of the album, as well as three live bonus tracks.
Now, as for the bonus tracks. They're great and I'm very glad they were included, but as was the case with Fandango they simply left me wanting more. Any live ZZ Top material is much appreciated as this is one thing sadly lacking from the Top catalog. Until now, the live side of Fandango was the only live representation that the band had (except for a couple of live cuts on the XXX album from 1999). The live tracks on Tres Hombres are very good. They are obviously not from the era in which the album was recorded. They sound like they were recorded in the '90s or even 2000s perhaps. That's okay, though. It's still ZZ Top live. Waitin' on the Bus/Jesus Just Left Chicago and La Grange are solid staples of the band's live repertoire and it's great to hear them in concert setting. The only disappointing thing is that there are only three of them. I want much, much more. A whole album of ZZ Top live tracks would be awesome, particularly if it consisted of tracks recorded in the '70s. They're such a great live band, they truly deserve a live album. Hopefully, someday soon Warner will open up the archives and pull out some of those live recordings that are just sitting there gathering dust.
In summary, if you could own only one ZZ Top album, Tres Hombres should be the one. I would also recommend Rio Grande Mud, Fandango, Deguello and Rythmeen. If you're going to buy Tres Hombres make sure that you get the new remastered CD with the original mix restored. Avoid the old one at all costs. Or else just get it on vinyl.
Free Music Review: Finally
Hit: 5 Stars
The only way to have this release until now was on vinyl. The CD release before this had been tampered with to give it more of a modern/dance tone - and was not the real thing at all. This release finally remasters from the original tapes and it sounds great. Good bonus live tracks too. Free Music Review: The Original Mix Is Finally Restored
Hit: 5 Stars
After years of only being able to get the bogus remixed and re-recorded versions of the first 6 ZZ records, Rhino has finally begun issuing the Top back catalog (Tres Hombres and Fandango so far) faithfully restoring the original mixes of these classic records. The fact that these fine records were altered to begin with is a complete travesty. I had to resort to burning the original vinyl as CDs because of the previous butchery and doctoring of these vintage 70's recordings. But now the original mixes are finally available and they sound incredible. Tres Hombres has one of the best mixes of a hard rock album from the early 70's anyway, and to hear it in remastered digital form is an almost religious experience. Fandango sounds just as good, with a little more top end to the recording. I hope Rhino doesn't delay releasing the other 4 albums along with Deguello in original mix, remastered form. I can't wait to hear them. So if you are considering buying any of the first 7 ZZ Top CD's, only buy the 2006 remastered, original mix version of Tres Hombres and Fandango, and wait until the others get released in the same format. You'll be glad you waited and saved your money, I can't emphasize enough how terrible the previous releases of these CD's sounded.Free Music Review: Great Remix
Hit: 5 Stars
This is a great album made even better by the remix. The tunes all sound, well, better. More up front, clearer, snappier. The versions on Chrome, Smoke & BBQ are of the same remix. The three live tracks are great, and worth the price of the album: Waitin' for the Bus, Jesus, & La Grange.