F Formula

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.