The “brown Plasticene” band is back, doing more of their jazz-pop fusion work. I mentioned in the previous entry about Tangerine Dream doing one thing, but doing it well, and I think the same can be argued for Steely Dan.
Becker and Fagen seem to aim for more radio-ready songs than the last album, deliberately keeping tracks largely around the 4-minute mark, and eschewing any lengthy jams or soloing. And, it has to be said, they do craft some elegant and intelligent pop-rock tracks with jazz overtones.
The big single from this album is Rikki Don’t Lose That Number, advising Rikki to hang onto the phone number of a girl in case he “has a change of heart” and decides to call her. And not, as seems to have been the rather tin-foil hat claim of the time, about hiding a joint in the mail system. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. And not a joint.
Charlie Freak is told from the viewpoint of a pawnbroker who buys an addict’s last valuable possession, a gold (wedding?) ring, thus allowing the addict to get one last hit that kills him. But set to charming and inoffensive music, hiding a dark message in plain sight.
There’s a cover of a Louis Armstrong jazz number, East St. Louis Toodle-oo, that uses slide guitar to mimic trombone, and a vocoder (as popularised by Peter Frampton) to mimic muted trumpet – a strange reversal where the original mute work was meant to mimic a human voice. Now you’ve got a human voice using modulation to sound like an instrument meant to sound like a human voice. Wrap your brain around that one.
I think every time there’s been a Steely Dan album I’ve come to the same conclusion, that I quite liked the songs but felt like I needed another listen or two to fully appreciate them. That said, I’ve heard Rikki Don’t Lose That Number and Holding Back The Years many many times on the radio, and haven’t “got” them yet, so I think it might be another one of those bands I can appreciate intellectually without loving them.
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