Album Review: Billy Gibbons – Perfectamundo by Bear
For those of you that were thinking you were going to get songs like “Sharped Dressed Man”, “Tush”, “Legs” and the rest of the 80’s MTV music of ZZ Top out of Billy Gibbons new album “Perfectamundo”, you need to look somewhere else.
Who knew that a Latin/Cuban/hip-hop album could come out of Gibbons but “Perfectamundo” is just that, a mix of unlikely rhythms. That famous guitar style is still there on “Perfectamundo” but it’s not the main focus.
A fact I did not know before this album was that long before ZZ Top, Gibbons was a student of Latin music great Tito Puente through his bandleader father and when Billy was a young kid he got to hang out and study Latin percussion with Puente in the ’60s and that influence runs deep on “Perfectamundo”.
I like Gibbons take on blues standards “Got Love If You Want It” and “Treat Her Right” which mixes in that latin feel almost a “Santana” feel. I liked his boogie version of “Baby Please Don’t Go” but genre-blending “Quiero Mas Dinero,” the Hammond featured “Q-Vo” and most of the rest left me kinda flat as it seemed to try too hard to be different.
Look Gibbons is 65 and he has earned his place and the right to create the type of music he wants to do, but its not something I can see me putting on a turntable 5, 10 years from now.
RATING – 2.5 out of 5
