Eliminator may have the bigger and popular hits, but for me Afterburner has my favorite ZZ Top songs during this era. I'm not sure what the overall perception is towards Afterburner, but I kinda get the feeling that because it doesn't have the big hits that it's sometimes overlooked. The album is definitely following in the much larger footsteps of Eliminator and does give me my favorite songs by them, but as a whole, the album is slightly less than that of it's predecessor. The album did knock out another #1 hit with Sleeping Bags. But for me, I actually find the song to be less than a few of the other songs on the album. I love the song, but I think there are much better song here.

Personally, I just think that the best songs here and far superior are Stages, Rough Boy, Velcro Fly and Dipping Low In The Life Of Luxury. Stages is just a great  f u c k i n g  song that should have been bigger than it was and I think that a lot of the reason why it didn't catch on had to do with the music video for it. Up till now, the band had come up with some very creative and memorable 'short films' that really propelled their songs higher on the chart. With Stages, we are basically left with a "Live performance" video framed with a TV monitor on an orbiting satellite in space. Yeah, just doesn't scream innovative.

Rough Boy is probably the coolest looking video they've ever done and the song itself is tops in my book with some incredible guitar work from Billy Gibbons. Velcro Fly should have been a monster hit. It had everything you'd want in a radio friendly song: Hooks, choruses' and a dance-ready song made for parties. Even the video was awesome. Dipping Low In The Life Of Luxury is another song that is infectious to the very last beat and one that I never get tired playing on a loop. Anyway, this is still a fantastic album and one that you should have in your personal library.