Steely Dan – Pretzel Logic (1974/2023) [Official Digital Download 24bit/192kHz]

Steely Dan – Pretzel Logic (1974/2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 33:52 minutes | 1,21 GB | Genre: Rock, Jazz Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Geffen

Pretzel Logic is the third studio album by American rock band Steely Dan, released by ABC Records on February 20, 1974. It was recorded at the Village Recorder in West Los Angeles, California, with producer Gary Katz. The album was Steely Dan’s last to be made and released while the group was still an active touring band, as well as the final album to feature the band’s full quintet-lineup of Becker, Fagen, Denny Dias, Jim Hodder, and Jeff “Skunk” Baxter (who subsequently left to join The Doobie Brothers), though it also features significant contributions from many prominent Los Angeles-based studio musicians.

A commercial and critical success, the album’s hit single, “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number”, helped restore Steely Dan’s radio presence after the disappointing performance of their previous album. Pretzel Logic was reissued on CD in 1987, and remastered in 1999, to retrospective critical acclaim.

Countdown to Ecstasy wasn’t half the hit that Can’t Buy a Thrill was, and Steely Dan responded by trimming the lengthy instrumental jams that were scattered across Countdown and concentrating on concise songs for Pretzel Logic. While the shorter songs usually indicate a tendency toward pop conventions, that’s not the case with Pretzel Logic. Instead of relying on easy hooks, Walter Becker and Donald Fagen assembled their most complex and cynical set of songs to date. Dense with harmonics, countermelodies, and bop phrasing, Pretzel Logic is vibrant with unpredictable musical juxtapositions and snide, but very funny, wordplay. Listen to how the album’s hit single, “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number,” opens with a syncopated piano line that evolves into a graceful pop melody, or how the title track winds from a blues to a jazzy chorus — Becker and Fagen’s craft has become seamless while remaining idiosyncratic and thrillingly accessible. Since the songs are now paramount, it makes sense that Pretzel Logic is less of a band-oriented album than Countdown to Ecstasy, yet it is the richest album in their catalog, one where the backhanded Dylan tribute “Barrytown” can sit comfortably next to the gorgeous “Any Major Dude Will Tell You.” Steely Dan made more accomplished albums than Pretzel Logic, but they never made a better one.
– Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Tracklist:
1-1. Steely Dan – Rikki Don’t Lose That Number (04:32)
1-2. Steely Dan – Night By Night (03:38)
1-3. Steely Dan – Any Major Dude Will Tell You (03:07)
1-4. Steely Dan – Barrytown (03:20)
1-5. Steely Dan – East St. Louis Toodle-Oo (02:47)
1-6. Steely Dan – Parker’s Band (02:37)
1-7. Steely Dan – Through With Buzz (01:32)
1-8. Steely Dan – Pretzel Logic (04:31)
1-9. Steely Dan – With A Gun (02:17)
1-10. Steely Dan – Charlie Freak (02:44)
1-11. Steely Dan – Monkey In Your Soul (02:40)

Download: