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Steely Dan – Two Against Nature (Edition Studio Masters) (2000/2012)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 51:50 minutes | 1,02 GB | Genre: Pop
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Giant – Reprise
Sure, Steely Dan are a decade or two late in delivering Two Against Nature, their follow-up to 1980’s Gaucho. But time may finally be on the side of rock’s most illustrious music geeks. The old knock on Steely Dan was that they were too good for their own good — if Walter Becker and Donald Fagen had recorded a studio album during rock’s extended Amateur Hour of the early Nineties, they might have been publicly flogged. Unlike their El Lay-based muso contemporaries, Steely Dan managed to mix their craft with some truly crazy shit — slick-sounding songs about perverts, assassins, divorcees and other non-strangers. We should have expected no less from a band named after a dildo, albeit a hugely literary one.
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Steely Dan – Gaucho (1980/2014)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 38:12 minutes | 874 MB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Geffen*
Released in 1980, Gaucho was Walter Becker and Donald Fagen’s seventh and last album as Steely Dan until the release of Two Against Nature in 2000.
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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.
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Steely Dan – Countdown To Ecstasy (1973/2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 40:48 minutes | 1,42 GB | Genre: Soft Rock, Jazz Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Geffen
Mastered by Bernie Grundman from original analogue tapes. Personally overseen by Donald Fagen.
The album features the singles ‘Show Biz Kids’ and ‘My Old School’ although neither could repeat the commercial success of ‘Do It Again’ or ‘Reelin’ in the Years’ which respectively reached the top 10 and top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100 in 1972. Countdown to Ecstasy saw Donald Fagen take over all lead vocal duties after David Palmer, who’d sung a few tracks on 1972’s Can’t Buy A Thrill, left the band.
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Steely Dan – Can’t Buy A Thrill (1972/2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 41:10 minutes | 1,63 GB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Geffen
Led by the songwriting and virtuoso musical duo of Walter Becker and Donald Fagen, Steely Dan released an extraordinary run of seven albums on ABC Records and MCA Records from 1972 through 1980. Filled with topline musicianship, clever and subversive wordplay, ironic humour, genius arrangements, and pop hits that outshone the Top 40 of its day, their records, which were as sophisticated and cerebral as they were inscrutable, were stylistically diverse, melding their love of jazz with rock, blues, and impeccable pop song-craft.
Steely Dan’s classic ABC and MCA Records catalog is now set to return with an extensive yearlong reissue program of the band’s first seven records, which is being personally overseen by founding member Donald Fagen. The series kicks off with the album that started it all, the band’s legendary 1972 debut LP, Can’t Buy A Thrill, now in its 50th anniversary year, featuring the band’s breakthrough hits, “Do It Again,” “Reelin’ in the Years,” and the recently viral “Dirty Work,” with original lead vocalist David Palmer.
All albums are being meticulously remastered by Bernie Grundman from the original analog tapes except for Aja, which will be mastered from an analog, non-EQ’d, tape copy, and Gaucho, which will be sourced from a 1980 analog tape copy originally EQ’d by Bob Ludwig.
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Steely Dan – Two Against Nature (2000)
DVDFab | ISO+INI+MDS+Log | PCM 5.1 24/96, PCM 2.0 24/96, DTS 5.1, DD 5.1 | Full Scans 300dpi | 5.19 GB
FLAC tracks 24bit/96kHz | Full Scans 300dpi | 1.15 GB
Notorious for shunning concert performances, Steely Dan’s improbable live reunion in the mid-’90s eventually turned into a full-fledged reunion album. Since Steely Dan fans went two decades without even the hope of a new record, the very prospect was a delight, but it was also a little worrying, since a botched comeback would tarnish the band’s legacy. Fortunately, Two Against Nature is as seductive and alluring as the best of Steely Dan’s later work, with a similar emphasis on classy atmosphere and groove. Pitched halfway between Gaucho and the immaculate production of Fagen’s solo album Kamakiriad, it’s a graceful, intricate record that works its subtle charms at its own pace. While that means it isn’t a knockout on the first listen, it’s a real grower — a quietly addicting album that slowly works its way into the subconscious. It’s also an uncannily natural extension of the duo’s previous work, but surprisingly, it never sounds nostalgic or dated. It’s clear that Becker and Fagen re-teamed because they simply enjoy working together: crafting the songs and arrangements, designing the production, shoehorning in-jokes into the lyrics, finding the exact performances that fit their specifications. In this sense, Two Against Nature is no different than any past Steely Dan effort; that’s exactly why it’s welcome, since they find nearly endless permutations within their signature sound. Lyrically, the album isn’t quite as malicious as their ’70s work, but they haven’t lost their sharp humor, even on some mere throwaway lines. The real payoff, however, is musical. Each song gradually reveals its own identity through small, thrilling touches, giving the record depth and character, and fitting it comfortably into Steely Dan’s acclaimed body of work. And that’s as delightfully unexpected and peculiarly beautiful as anything else in their career. ~~ AllMusic Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine (more…)
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Steely Dan – Everything Must Go
Artist: Steely Dan | Album: Everything Must Go | Style: Jazz, Rock | Year: 2003 | Quality: DVD-Audio (MLP 5.1 96kHz/24Bit, MLP 2.0 96kHz/24Bit, DTS 5.1 96kHz/24Bit, Dolby AC3 5.1, Dolby AC3 2.0) | Bitrate: lossless | Tracks: 9 | Size: 6.35 Gb | Recovery: 5% | Covers: in archive | Release: Reprise Records | Warner Music (48435-9 USA), 2003 | Note: Watermarked
When Steely Dan released Two Against Nature in 2000, their first album in 20 years, it was an unexpected gift, since all odds seemed against Donald Fagen and Walter Becker reteaming for nothing more than the occasional project, let alone a full album. As it turned out, the duo was able to pick up where they left off, with Two Against Nature seamlessly fitting next to Gaucho and earning the band surprise success, including a Grammy for Album of the Year, but the bigger surprise is that the reunion wasn’t a one-off — they released another record, Everything Must Go, a mere three years later. Given the (relatively) short turnaround time between the two records, it comes as little surprise that Everything Must Go is a companion piece to Two Against Nature, and sounds very much like that album’s laid-back, catchy jazz-funk, only with an elastic, loose feel — loose enough to have Walter Becker take the first lead vocal in Steely Dan history, in fact, which sums up the Dan’s attitude in a nutshell. This time, they’re comfortable and confident enough to let anything happen, and while that doesn’t really affect the sound of the record, it does affect the feel. Though it as expertly produced as always, there’s less emphasis on production and a focus on the feel, often breathing as much as a live performance, another new wrinkle for Steely Dan. Sometimes, it also sounds as if Becker and Fagen have written the songs quickly; there’s nothing that betrays their high standards of craft, but, on a whole, the songs are neither as hooky nor as resonant as the ones unveiled on its predecessor. While it might have been nice to have a song as immediate as, say, “Cousin Dupree,” there are no bad songs here and many cuts grow as nicely as those on Two Against Nature. But the real selling point of Everything Must Go is that relaxed, comfortable, live feel. It signals that Steely Dan has indeed entered a new phase, one less fussy and a bit funkier (albeit lite funk). If they can keep turning out a record this solid every three years, we’d all be better off. ~~ AllMusic Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine (more…)
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Steely Dan – Can’t Buy A Thrill (1972)
Vinyl rip in 24 Bit/96 kHz | FLAC | Artwork HR | 858 Mb
ABC Records – ABCX-758 (Original US, 1972) | Rock
Tracklist
A1 Do It Again 5:56
A2 Dirty Work 3:08
A3 Kings 3:45
A4 Midnite Cruiser 4:09
A5 Only A Fool Would Say That 2:54
B1 Reelin’ In The Years 4:35
B2 Fire In The Hole 3:26
B3 Brooklyn 4:20
B4 Change Of The Guard 3:28
B5 Turn That Heartbeat Over Again 4:58
Steely Dan
Donald Fagen – acoustic and electric pianos, plastic (YC-30) organ, lead vocals (except on “Dirty Work”, “Midnite Cruiser”, and “Brooklyn”), backing vocals
Walter Becker – electric bass, backing vocals, dual lead vocal on “Turn That Heartbeat Over Again”
Jeff “Skunk” Baxter – guitar, pedal steel guitar, spoken word on “Only a Fool Would Say That”
Denny Dias – guitar, electric sitar
Jim Hodder – drums, percussion, lead vocal on “Midnite Cruiser”, backing vocals
David Palmer – lead vocals on “Dirty Work” and “Brooklyn”, backing vocals