By John Bungey
The Times of London
Two Against Nature (8/10)
Steely Dan
(RCA)
Few bands from the Seventies can boast a back catalogue that has held up as well as Steely Dan’s. From intelligent pop through to jazzy rock, there’s scarcely an ounce of flab on their seven albums of the era. If the polished chords of 1977’s “Aja” were out of place amid the crash and clatter of the punk hordes, then today they sound just fine. Walter Becker and Donald Fagen, the cerebral team behind the music, ceased working together after 1980’s Gaucho, their relationship stymied by an increasingly neurotic obsession with studio perfection and Becker’s burgeoning drug intake. Over the next 13 years Fagen managed to release all of two solo albums (one more than Becker) and occasionally spoke of writers’ block. It was the lure of lucrative Japanese dates that reunited the pair and the budget to pay for the deluxe touring band that they had always craved.
1997 saw the obligatory live album of greatest hits, but then, last year, the two deemed the time was right to go back into the studio with new material. From the first clipped notes of “Gas Lighting Abbie,” it’s clear that “Two Against Nature” is business as usual. The music blends wry, dry lyrics with spare jazz-funk — New York cynicism meets West Coast cool. Age and wealth have failed to temper Becker and Fagen’s weary amusement at the human condition. “Negative Girl” and the jaunty “Cousin Dupree” are both about unwise liaisons. “Janie Runaway” might just be a sincere statement of desire, but there is something about the slick chords that makes you doubt it. The two are also in a position to tackle the disappointments of getting old. “What a Shame About Me” tells of a college graduate discovering from a chance reunion that all his former colleagues have fared much better in life than him.
Becker and Fagen’s quest for production excellence is undimmed. Becker plays taut, restrained guitar and the customary selection of A-list session men shade the songs with brief but beautifully crafted solos. As the record closes, given the luxury of CD length, saxophonist Chris Potter is let off the leash for once and allowed a spirited four-minute blow.
Like much of the best Steely Dan, “Two Against Nature” doesn’t reveal all its charms straight off — the Top 40 choruses of “Pretzel Logic” days have been replaced by wilier melodies, and the word games can be determinedly dense. “Gas Lighting Abbie,” ostensibly a love song, revolves around the refrain “Flame is the game, the game we call Gas Lighting Abbie.” On the title track Fagen’s elaborate musings are largely indecipherable (and a lyric sheet doesn’t help much) — though it scarcely matters; the six-minute Latin-tinged song is the funkiest piece they have written.
Some people have never warmed to Becker and Fagen’s self-control and detachment — theirs is music to be admired, more than loved — and this album won’t convert them. But for anyone beguiled by “The Royal Scam” or who shook a leg to “Peg,” this is the real thing. Forget all those pay-the-alimony or school fees band reunions, this is one revival that has been worth the wait.
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