Afterburner
by ZZ Top

Album
Afterburner by ZZ Top
Year: 1985
Release date: 1985-10-28
Overall rank: 6,063rd   Overall chart history
Average Rating: 
69/100 (from 146 votes)
  Ratings distribution   Average rating history
Accolades:
Award Top albums of 1985 (73rd)
Award Top albums of of the 1980s (865th)
Award Best albums of all time (6,063rd)

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ZZ Top bestography

Afterburner is ranked 5th best out of 28 albums by ZZ Top on BestEverAlbums.com.

The best album by ZZ Top is Eliminator which is ranked number 1152 in the list of all-time albums with a total rank score of 1,515.

ZZ Top album bestography « Higher ranked (5,862nd)
Fandango! This album (6,063rd)
Afterburner Lower ranked (9,244th) »
Tejas

(N.B. Bestographies include all albums by an artist (and their variations), but do not include albums ranked outside the top 100,000).

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Afterburner rankings

Afterburner rankings summary
Overall rank: 6,063rd | 1980s rank: 865th | 1985 rank: 73rd  Overall chart history
(Calculated from aggregate positions across 60,000 charts (2 million album rankings). (Last updated: 3 hours ago).

Afterburner collection

Afterburner ratings

Average Rating: 
69/100 (from 146 votes)
  Ratings distribution Help Average Rating = (n ÷ (n + m)) × av + (m ÷ (n + m)) × AV
where:
av = trimmed mean average rating an item has currently received.
n = number of ratings an item has currently received.
m = minimum number of ratings required for an item to appear in a 'top-rated' chart (currently 10).
AV = the site mean average rating.

Showing latest 5 ratings for this album.  | Show all 146 ratings for this album.

Sort Sort by
RatingDate updatedMemberAlbum ratingsAvg. album rating
 
70/100
 !		02/28/2026 17:17 DaveH68  Ratings distribution  1,36376/100
 
50/100
 !		11/12/2025 23:47 NYAndreas  Ratings distribution  1,43344/100
 
55/100
 !		11/09/2025 04:55 Exist-en-ciel  Ratings distribution  15,27670/100
 
70/100
 !		10/03/2025 20:54 MasterOfPuppets  Ratings distribution  84583/100
 
75/100
 !		08/04/2025 10:31 mikepen  Ratings distribution  37284/100

Rating metrics: Help Outliers can be removed when calculating a mean average to dampen the effects of ratings outside the normal distribution. This figure is provided as the trimmed mean. A high standard deviation can be legitimate, but can sometimes indicate 'gaming' is occurring. Consider a simplified example* of an item receiving ratings of 100, 50, & 0. The mean average rating would be 50. However, ratings of 55, 50 & 45 could also result in the same average. The second average might be more trusted because there is more consensus around a particular rating (a lower deviation).
(*In practice, some albums can have several thousand ratings)
This album has a Bayesian average rating of 69.3/100, a mean average of 69.1/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 69.1/100. The standard deviation for this album is 13.5.


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Afterburner favourites

Showing all 11 members who have added this album as a favourite

NYAndreas
notsosure
llibnanoon
CaptainPain
nocturnaldelight
brunotp
tillz
iancrockert141
bojanthebest1
Kyle39
Bork

Afterburner comments

Showing latest 10 comments | Show all 11 comments |
Most Helpful First | Newest First | Positive Sentiment First | Longest Comments First
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Rating:  
65/100
From 09/30/2024 13:49 | #305475 | TOP COMMENT Help Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.
I think that this album tries to replicate the success of Eliminator by replicating event the song patters so well done, but without much success. The beat is too disco and dull when repeated in most of these songs. The lack of hits is another dilemma with this. Sleeping Bag and Rough Boy are the best songs
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
80/100
From 07/10/2020 18:07 | #255377
Great album! Rating (81.50)
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
45/100
From 01/02/2019 04:22 | #228538
The descent begun with Eliminator is completed and ZZ bottomed out here with slick and cheesy faux rock.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
75/100
From 09/06/2018 18:51 | #220669 | TOP COMMENT Help Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.
ZZ Top at the top of their carreer with an energetic sound and top hits like "Sleeping Bag" and "Velcro Fly". The recording sounds heavier than the "Eliminator" album with more blues.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
70/100
From 03/24/2017 20:36 | #188024
Eliminator v2...but not as good. Rough Boy just doesn't sound right.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
60/100
From 07/09/2016 10:57 | #170930 | TOP COMMENT Help Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.
Even more contemporary than, eliminator, although they're not messing with the formula too much. Overall, the quality isn't as good as it's predecessor, but, sleeping bag, and, rough boy, are decent modern sounding pop/rock. Completely forgettable, but fun.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
60/100
From 10/08/2012 22:51 | #51950
Romanelli has it bang on.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
75/100
From 08/13/2012 14:22 | #48399 | TOP COMMENT Help Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.
Yes, their blues rock watered down into synth rock on Afterburner and there's no great pop song like "legs" or "sharp dressed man", but most of these songs are tight pop songs. The suggestive "sleeping bag" is probably my fav here.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
From 05/12/2011 23:31 | #21667
Mid 80's ZZ Top was all about beards, cars, looking like a hobo and squeaky clean generic pop rock. Well done and forgettable.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
75/100
From 05/10/2011 14:48 | #21394
I am a ZZ Top fan but I didn't overall like the more pop direction they went to during this phase.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

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Best Albums of  1985
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2. Rain Dogs by Tom Waits
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4. Meat Is Murder by The Smiths
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