A jewel hidden at the end of the last truly great Dan album. To my ears, it was as big a stretch as Aja was back in 77. Would have loved for them to go on exploring further on this jazzier road.
Aw Justin - I almost screamed, when I saw this post appearing... I've waited for more people discovering and discussing this song. I heard it some years ago for the first time, way after midnight, on good head phones, and a few helpings of whiskey, and it freaked me out - amazing crazy never-ending loops in the bigger 2nd half of the song 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 PS. part of the freaking out was also, that I once did have a love affair, that went kind of the way its described here, and the concerned lady lived, well, west of Hollywood!! 💖
Great album you really want to do the title track two against nature I think it’s the best track on the album it could probably fit on any Steely Dan album
Great review. That is one of the best sax solos I've ever heard, The awesome chord changes underneath the solo propels Potter to play his brains out. Love all the Squigly keyboard nuances, adding color. Seems in this later incarnation the Dan opts for very simple percussion, as opposed to Aja for example.Coulda used a drum machine for this track. And a minute too long as you said. But Potter just kept killing it! Sue me if I play too long, to quote another Dan tune.
All their music is good. Whenever I listen to one CD off the Citizen Steely Dan box, I want to hear the rest - all the other CD's and Fagen's solo work. Morph the Cat is terribly underrated.
Yes! We need more reactions from later Steely Dan albums, which are great but divisive. Some folks seem to prefer early Dan when they had more of a rock sound but I think that’s a hang up that younger generations don’t have given their love of R&B grooves. Walter’s guitar is definitely a standout on these last 2 records.
Great ending track with Walter Becker's guitar noodling through the lush chords and the fabulous saxophone solo by Chris Potter. Really should check out Everything Must Go. Final album by the band and is a great send off. I recommend the tracks "Blues Beach" "Pixeleen" and "Lunch With Gina." Also, "Slang of Ages" as Walter Becker takes lead vocal duties giving it a more unique quality. Two Against Nature as well has some gems on it too. Recommend "Almost Gothic" "Negative Girl" and "Gaslighting Abbie."
Interesting album that I like a bit more than when I heard it first few times. For me It is my second favourite song on this album behind Jack of Speed (the clever SD lyrics that I love along with the great musicianship than you always get). Thanks JP
I find the drumming a little flat, but the rest of this tune is just perfect. The sax solo is magnificent, and the groove is so good. Also I like the line "I'm way deep into nothing special".
Then there is the "Lost Gaucho" album - tracks that never made the album. Especially interesting is "Were You Blind That Day", which is "Third World Man" with different lyrics, and a Larry Carlton guitar solo recorded for an unused song from the Royal Scam sessions.
Although I love the track, particularly Walter's guitar and Chris Potter's fantastic outro, the song is very sad because it reminds me of being with my late wife in palliative care (...She reached out for my hand while I watched myself lurch across the room and I almost got there...) and the subject in this song is talking to his brother about the dreams he had once with this 'older' woman and all the brother can offer is a weekend away at Port Blanc. Hmmm, pretty sad and Donald has now lost his wife, Libby Titus, so I guess life goes on as does the music.
First of all, this is somebody’s favorite song, so congrats. I did miss Purdie though or somebody with more feel. First part of the song felt like it was retreading ideas from different songs but the last jam was step towards full on jazz rather than smooth jazz which I dug. Imagine a jazzy drummer in there… but I did enjoy it overall.
This was named Grammy Album of the Year. It's not a great album but I think Grammy voters just wanted to reward Fagen and Becker for their body of work overall and were thrilled to see a new album with the Steely Dan name on it. There are better songs on this album 'Gaslighting Abbie' and 'Jamie Runaway' for example. This track is dull.
I already didn't like Gaucho, so Steely Dan twenty years later, no thanks! Anyway, the best of the band were their first three albums (Can't Buy a Thrill, Countdown to Ecstasy and Pretzel Logic) and I can still tolerate their next three (Katy Lied, The Royal Scam and Aja), but beyond that I can't.💤 It's better to stop when you're on top!😊
100%. I had already heard all the SD I needed before this album. They're the band that most exposes the laughability of the Grammys for me - they didn't win one until 2001 (with Two Against Nature) long long after they deserved consideration.
@@kenl2091 👍Yep, and that's often how it is! I mean, Jethro Tull won a Grammy award for Crest of a Knave (moreover, in the Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance Vocal or Instrumental, category!!!🙃🤔), even though at that point in their career it was their weakest album artistically. Go figure!🙄
@@jtenaz His? 'his'???? Gaucho is weak??? Got any more informed opinions for us Sport? I'll take the 'weak' opinion based on the 'his' ; based on obviously ignorant.
A jewel hidden at the end of the last truly great Dan album. To my ears, it was as big a stretch as Aja was back in 77. Would have loved for them to go on exploring further on this jazzier road.
Great choice. fantastic Walter guitar solo...and Potter's sax solo is out of the world.
Potter is stellar no matter the song or genre
Aw Justin - I almost screamed, when I saw this post appearing... I've waited for more people discovering and discussing this song. I heard it some years ago for the first time, way after midnight, on good head phones, and a few helpings of whiskey, and it freaked me out - amazing crazy never-ending loops in the bigger 2nd half of the song 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
PS. part of the freaking out was also, that I once did have a love affair, that went kind of the way its described here, and the concerned lady lived, well, west of Hollywood!! 💖
Ty Jorn! Glad you enjoyed this one :)
Well, I love Steely Dan and I love this track. A good return album.
The solo work of Walter Becker on this one was some of his best work.
Check out Negative Girl and Fagin’s solo album Sunken Condos from the early 2000’s
Great album you really want to do the title track two against nature I think it’s the best track on the album it could probably fit on any Steely Dan album
Great review. That is one of the best sax solos I've ever heard, The awesome chord changes underneath the solo propels Potter to play his brains out. Love all the Squigly keyboard nuances, adding color. Seems in this later incarnation the Dan opts for very simple percussion, as opposed to Aja for example.Coulda used a drum machine for this track. And a minute too long as you said. But Potter just kept killing it! Sue me if I play too long, to quote another Dan tune.
Ty Rick!
I'm surprised people aren't talking about the "Alive in america"album it's really good 👌
All their music is good. Whenever I listen to one CD off the Citizen Steely Dan box, I want to hear the rest - all the other CD's and Fagen's solo work. Morph the Cat is terribly underrated.
Yes! We need more reactions from later Steely Dan albums, which are great but divisive. Some folks seem to prefer early Dan when they had more of a rock sound but I think that’s a hang up that younger generations don’t have given their love of R&B grooves. Walter’s guitar is definitely a standout on these last 2 records.
Great ending track with Walter Becker's guitar noodling through the lush chords and the fabulous saxophone solo by Chris Potter.
Really should check out Everything Must Go. Final album by the band and is a great send off. I recommend the tracks "Blues Beach" "Pixeleen" and "Lunch With Gina." Also, "Slang of Ages" as Walter Becker takes lead vocal duties giving it a more unique quality.
Two Against Nature as well has some gems on it too. Recommend "Almost Gothic" "Negative Girl" and "Gaslighting Abbie."
Great review of a great late phase Steely Dan song!
A great piece, one of their best, on a par with Aja.
Yesss, another reaction to Steely Dan, this is what I've been waiting for since the inception of the internet!! Here's hoping for Dream Theatre soon.
The worst drum sound ever.
👍🤣😂How many will grasp the irony? 🤔
@@paulcollins5586 Absolutely! The playing seems human but the sound is reminiscent of a drum machine. Awful.
@@a.k.1740 Yes .
@@a.k.1740 I got you two and Jfergs at the least, lol
Interesting album that I like a bit more than when I heard it first few times. For me It is my second favourite song on this album behind Jack of Speed (the clever SD lyrics that I love along with the great musicianship than you always get). Thanks JP
I find the drumming a little flat, but the rest of this tune is just perfect. The sax solo is magnificent, and the groove is so good. Also I like the line "I'm way deep into nothing special".
Then there is the "Lost Gaucho" album - tracks that never made the album. Especially interesting is "Were You Blind That Day", which is "Third World Man" with different lyrics, and a Larry Carlton guitar solo recorded for an unused song from the Royal Scam sessions.
Although I love the track, particularly Walter's guitar and Chris Potter's fantastic outro, the song is very sad because it reminds me of being with my late wife in palliative care (...She reached out for my hand
while I watched myself lurch across the room and I almost got there...) and the subject in this song is talking to his brother about the dreams he had once with this 'older' woman and all the brother can offer is a weekend away at Port Blanc. Hmmm, pretty sad and Donald has now lost his wife, Libby Titus, so I guess life goes on as does the music.
The vocal cadence that reminds you of The Police is a polyrhythm, 3 against 2 across the bar. It’s a common weapon in Sting’s arsenal.
Ty ty; it helps to identify the exact terms :)
First of all, this is somebody’s favorite song, so congrats.
I did miss Purdie though or somebody with more feel. First part of the song felt like it was retreading ideas from different songs but the last jam was step towards full on jazz rather than smooth jazz which I dug. Imagine a jazzy drummer in there… but I did enjoy it overall.
Nice plant in the background. Sorry i got distracted. !!
🤭🤣Who wouldn't be distracted, listening to this background music?😉
😆
😊its a great morning 🌄
Chris Potter really makes this track. Snare sounds like hitting a wet shoebox, but oh well.
Love ‘Cousin Dupree’ off this album . Hilarious
Nope, there is no Dr. Warren Krueger. Lyrics sound like something WB might have conjured.
Great song. Saw them does this live in Osaka.
Donald Fagen's solo albums were much more succesful
I don't enjoy this album as much as all the earlier Steely Dan albums but so much better than Everything Must Go which l can't get into at all!
Everything must go…..Must go.
Yes! I was in the mood for some easy-listening blandcore!
😆
Yes! Too much The Smiths or ABC in the channel...
This was named Grammy Album of the Year. It's not a great album but I think Grammy voters just wanted to reward Fagen and Becker for their body of work overall and were thrilled to see a new album with the Steely Dan name on it. There are better songs on this album 'Gaslighting Abbie' and 'Jamie Runaway' for example. This track is dull.
I already didn't like Gaucho, so Steely Dan twenty years later, no thanks! Anyway, the best of the band were their first three albums (Can't Buy a Thrill, Countdown to Ecstasy and Pretzel Logic) and I can still tolerate their next three (Katy Lied, The Royal Scam and Aja), but beyond that I can't.💤 It's better to stop when you're on top!😊
Yes, Gaucho is weak. My favorites are their first three and Royal Scam.
@@jtenaz Same!👍
100%. I had already heard all the SD I needed before this album. They're the band that most exposes the laughability of the Grammys for me - they didn't win one until 2001 (with Two Against Nature) long long after they deserved consideration.
@@kenl2091 👍Yep, and that's often how it is! I mean, Jethro Tull won a Grammy award for Crest of a Knave (moreover, in the Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance Vocal or Instrumental, category!!!🙃🤔), even though at that point in their career it was their weakest album artistically. Go figure!🙄
@@jtenaz His?
'his'???? Gaucho is weak??? Got any more informed opinions for us Sport?
I'll take the 'weak' opinion based on the 'his' ; based on obviously ignorant.