Billy F. Gibbons launched his belated solo career in 2015 with
Perfectamundo, a loose exercise in Latin rhythms that was slightly outside of the wheelhouse of
ZZ Top, which had been his main gig since 1969.
Big Bad Blues, its 2018 sequel, could also be seen as a bit of a genre exercise, as it was a heavy blues album, but
Hardware is something else entirely. This 2021 platter is a straight-ahead rock & roll album in the vein of
ZZ Top, a record filled with originals that feel familiar, as they're built of the same components
Gibbons has relied upon for decades: fuzztone guitars, thick swing and burly boogie, sly jokes and growled vocals.
Gibbons is working with much of the same crew as he did in the past -- his old friend, engineer, and co-producer
Joe Hardy passed in between records -- so
Hardware sounds similar to
Big Bad Blues, but it's lighter on its feet, spending as much time with lively party tunes like "I Was a Highway" and a cover of
the Texas Tornados' "(Hey Baby) Que Paso" as it does with the crunching riff-rockers "My Lucky Card" and "More-More-More." There are slight traces of dusty desert soundscapes, apparent on the widescreen rocker "West Coast Junkie" and spooky spoken-word closer "Desert High," a texture that helps give
Hardware shape and dimension while also distinguishing it from the
ZZ Top catalog. Still, what makes
Hardware cook are the very elements that always work for
Gibbons: deceptively sharp songwriting that supports full-throttle rockers and soulful, slow(er) grooves. It's a formula that's yielded great results for
Gibbons throughout the years, and they do once again here. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine