Steely Dan - Two Against Nature
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Free Music Notes for Two Against Nature
Free Music Review: One of the best
Hit: 5 Stars
On Two Against Nature, Donald Fagan and Walter Becker have released an album with a very rare element in popular music: rich instrumentation. The CD is just a swirl of sound from start to finish with a number of tasteful textures. The listener hears every thing from brassy horn pops to velvety electric bass to twangy wah-wah guitars to just about every vintage keyboard ever invented. Each instrument adds its own contour to the music making for a very enjoyable listening experience where the listener keeps hearing new things throughout the album. The sound has so many layers that it is a very difficult but interesting task to dissect everything that is going on.
The songs themselves are very well put together. The writing is interesting and exciting horn arrangements are on every track. Each song has its own unique character from the bouncy salsa-tinged title track to the mysterious "Jack of Speed" to the naive and precarious "Cousin Dupree." In terms of lyrics, its not always obvious exactly what the duo is trying to say, but that is sort of how Steely Dan is supposed to be. Anyway, the nine songs all really mesh together well, they manage to fill up 50 minutes (which is more than some groups can do with 12-14 songs) and all of the songs are very strong. I don't know that I could come up with any one or two tracks that definately stand out.
The album also deserves praise for the sax solos by modern jazz virtuoso Chris Potter. Potter really adds to the value of the album with his legitamate jazz influence complementing the pop/funk that this album presents.
As a Grammy winner of Album of the Year, Steely Dan has really produced a wonderful piece of work. They keep in the tradition of their classic music and also bring in some modern influence to really add to America's music library with a positive contribution.
Free Music Review: They're 5 Stars
Gather your neighbors, light your torches and head down to Dr. Fegan's castle, because the monster is definately alive once again. A very solid effort from the boys. Complex, clean, here and there maybe even a bit too funky, but definately a Dan album, and something serious and casual fans must have. Initially, it sounded like a Kamakiriadesque venture. That CD I found to to be lacking on several levels, especially as a follow up to Nightfly. This made day one a bit of a dissapointment. It's been 20 years though; I forgot how you have to listen to this band. The first few times you listen to it, you end up catching the funky little pop tune; i.e. Peg, Josie, Bodhisattva. "Cousin Dupree" and "What a Shame about Me' on this disk. The rest still seems wierd, but you just keep listening suddenly find yourself being chased all over the shower the next morning by the sax solo from "West of Hollywood". Pete Christlieb is not on the disk, but this Chris Potter guy blows a mean horn. Soon you're humming songs you don't even think you know, and sliding easily through razor edged chord changes that only 2 guys would dare to use. Oh, and there's brass too! Who let those trumpets in here? Walter's vocal are stong, and the lyric material rivals the offbeat subjects of the past! The only dissapointment now that I've slept with the disk several times and can hear all the amazing things its doing is the guitar solos. I thought they were a little light; I'm thinking of the solos like "Kid Charlemagne" or the intro to "Don't Take Me Alive", where a Larry Carlton Drags you around hairpin turns screaming into the next wierd minor 7th diminished 9th chord whether or not you're ready for the change. But overall, a welcome return of our long lost friends!Free Music Review: For once the critics are right....
Hit: 5 Stars
Over the last year, I've listened almost obsessively to the Dan's music -- including a listen of this one, _Two Against Nature_, which, in comparison to their 1972-80 output, I didn't much care for. The music seemed trite and uninteresting, and despite my having come to love the Dan's music, I really couldn't understand why they won the best album with this offering....How patience pays off! I must not have been paying close attention on my first listen. But I went out and bought this recently on the strength of the samples I heard on this website, and I just fell in love with it. Well, almost all of it, though it won't stop me from giving it 5 stars. The only track that still sounds obviously trite and uninteresting is "Cousin Dupree," with "Two Against Nature" a (distant) second. But the rest I can listen to over and over.
It's hard to pick out a favorite; first I thought "Janie Runaway," and then "Almost Gothic" (which I've decided is the catchy equivalent on this album of _Gaucho_'s "Hey Nineteen" or _Aja_'s "Peg"). But my favorite now is probably "Negative Girl," a laid-back, sleek number that you thought you might only hear over the elevator speakers. But it exhibits the fine craftsmanship that embodies, to me, what fine *and accessible* music-making should be about. Thing is, it's not easily and quickly catchy; it takes a few listens before it actually sinks into your head, much like the others on this album, but even moreso. But perhaps more than any, it represents the Dan's best musical craftsmanship.
Considering the pretty consistent quality of the Dan's output going back to the '70s, I can firmly say that these guys know how to make good music. I eagerly await their next offering, said to be in the works.
Free Music Review: Keeping the Faith
Hit: 5 Stars
As has been noted here by others, there are many reunion albums that are either desperate attempts to get attention, or, worse, attempts to cash in on nostalgia. Two Against Nature is neither. Two Against Nature is simply about art. It took Fagen and Becker 4-6 years to finish it. It was surely an overwhelming challenge, because the apparent goal was to out-do their best work from the 1970s. It's too early to say if they actually achieved this goal (top Aja? top Katy Lied?) but this is a more than honorable effort. They worked much, much harder than they needed to, if all they cared about was the cash. Two Against Nature is a sincere shot at greatness. The music is an evolution of their style, not just a rehash. Some of the music is quite challenging to the ear (Gaslighting Abbie, the title tune, Negative Girl). There are at best 3 songs here that would work on radio (and they're great, especially Cousin Dupree). The lyrics create all the puzzles that inspire lunatics to spend years parsing them (if you don't believe me, check out the web site entitled "Fever Dreams.") And the music is sublime. I want to call attention to one song on this album that will surely rank with their greatest moments. The fast-paced closing song, "West of Hollywood" ends with a lengthy sax solo by Chris Potter that rides over the most baffling, unpredictable and thrilling series of chord changes I've heard assembled. If you aren't a musician, you don't know how difficult it is to solo over a crazy pattern like this. The attempt to make it work is typical of Steely Dan's daredevil approach to music. The fact that, in fact, it DOES work, demonstrates their genius, and the genius of their associates. If for no other reason, this album deserves elevation for that song.Free Music Review: Thank God for Steely Dan! So Good, They're From Another Planet!
Hit: 5 Stars
There's great pop music and then there's Steely Dan; a band that draws no comparisons because quite frankly, no band has ever come close to holding a candle to the brilliance of this outfit. Great songwriting, great musicianship, brilliantly witty lyrics (esp. "Deacon Blue")and now after a very long layoff, we get this brilliant offering, "2 Against Nature."
While different in stylings from their earlier albums, this album is a tour de force in itself. It's really no surprise that this album won the Grammy award for Album of the Year when it could really have won it for the following five years as well given the "quality" of the stuff that passes for music these days.
After all these years, we still get the trademark witty and humorous lyrics ("Cousin Dupree" - 'mind turns to apple sauce' lyric gets me everytime)the beautiful jazz style chord changes so evident on the album's best track and I think one of Steely Dan's all-time greatest tracks, "Jack of Speed" and the beautiful "Almost Gothic", the great guitar work of surprise, surprise, bass player Walter Becker himself who plays some very tasty licks on "What a Shame About Me."
No weak tracks on this album which given the duo's reputation for perfectionism is unsurprisingly very well produced and mastered for a great sound as well. The DVD-Audio is very good as well and contains concert footage and hilarious side bars as well as music from their earlier albums such as tracks like my favourite, "Peg".
Music that defies definition except that it's just perfect: Steely Dan. Very, very highly recommended; in fact get all their albums but get the remastered versions. Pop/rock music has hardly been better than when it's in the hands of Rock and Roll Hall-of-Famers, Steely Dan.