ZZ TOP

Any fans of that little ol band from Texas...

Most definitely. Since 1983, in fact, when the iconic Eliminator was born. I'll never forget the tongue-lashing I received when my father found out I listened to them, WASP and Motley Crue (after he read an article posting the lyrics to some of these bands' songs, including "Under Pressure"). Thus began my days of listening to hard rock and heavy metal in total secrecy. I thought my life was gonna end that night. Ironically, that is probably my favorite song by them.

Afterburner is one of the best albums to listen when taking a long road trip! The DRIVE of the album is so great it almost feels the album handles the actual driving with the car

I love all ZZ Top, especially pre Eliminator.

I've always appreciated their sound.  Its just straight up blues packaged as a rock band.  For the most part, it is super simple, but it makes the listener feel good.  Blues is supposed to be therapeutic like that.  None of the guys are doing anything super technical with their playing, but it all gels and makes for a great listen no matter which side of "Eliminator" you prefer.

A question for the ZZ Top connaisseurs in here.

I try to pick out the absolute best/most fun albums of ZZ Top, as a part of my bigger adventure of exploring the roots of the music I like (prog rock, power metal mainly). I made some great discoveries along the way, including Eliminator.

To find out which albums are the best, I use several indicators, and this made me conclude that I also need their following albums:
Tres Hombres, Fandango! and Afterburner.

Question: are those their most important/fun albums, apart from Eliminator? I'm sure their other albums are enjoyable too, but I'm trying to get the best taste of them on a fairly short term. Recources are limited, you know

I might be in the minority here, but El Loco has been my favorite since I was a teen.

I would get Tres Hombres and Deguello next

For the total fun factor, you need the trinity of albums that were extentions of "Eliminator".  I would get "Eliminator", "Afterburner", and "Recycler".  If "Eliminator" were mixed and mastered to the same levels as the latter two, you would swear that it was one long recording session as the songs just flow in feel and style like one cohesive work.

Their early stuff is almost all blues.  The latter era gets some alternative stylings, drop tunings, and a return to the blues albeit darker.

^Really? On one of the websites I use for comparing ZZ Top albums, metalstorm.net, those three albums are rated (in chronological order) 8.4, 7.9 and 7.1. But metalheads can rate on really weird grounds though.

Love Eliminator, not a bad tune on it. Brings back so many memories. Lots of great albums but I lost interest around Recycler and called it "Recycled". I have a few of theirs on vinyl and a couple of CD's and not near as many as I should. Excellent band.

When I saw this commercial I liked the song so much I downloaded the album from iTunes after I watched it. First ZZ product I have bought in over 20 years.

Cool song....hilarious commercial.

While I liked their music in my younger days, I must say that they are an absolute favorite of mine.  I have the downloads for every album they've done.  There isn't a bad era of ZZ Top.