By Zachary Houle PopMatters Associate Music Editor Something funny happened to me while I was listening to Donald Fagen’s fourth solo album, Sunken Condos, and first since 2006’s Morph the Cat. The record company kept a pretty tight leash on this release, and, to make a long story short, I had to download some software […]
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Donald Fagen: Sunken Condos
By Jim Beviglia AmericanSongwriter.com Donald Fagen Sunken Condos (Reprise) Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5 Calling Donald Fagen a singer/songwriter is a somewhat limiting description of what he actually delivers, both as frontman of Steely Dan and on his occasional solo albums. His latest, Sunken Condos, is a typical multi-tasking effort: He not only wrote […]
‘Sunken Condos’ Both Familiar and Still Fresh
By Elysa Gardner USA Today One of the perks of having a truly distinctive musical voice is that you don’t have to constantly refresh your sound to stay relevant. For 40 years, with and without Steely Dan, Donald Fagen has delivered a lithe, urbane, instantly recognizable hybrid of rock, jazz and funk. So while Fagen’s […]
New Music Review: Sunken Condos, Donald Fagen (Reprise)
By Bernard Perusse Montreal Gazette Donald Fagen Sunken Condos Reprise Rating: 4 stars If there’s an opposite to smoke and mirrors, Donald Fagen continues to hunt for it on his fourth solo album in 30 years. There’s plenty of space here for all instruments to find a spot, with no players crowding the others out […]
Catnip for Steely Dan Fans — Ten Days at NYC’s Beacon
By Joan K. Smith Huffington Post How far would you travel for a concert? How about across the country? Or across the world? It was still September when a gaggle of particularly obsessive music fans descended on New York City from near and far for a singular purpose: The ten-day run of seven Steely Dan […]
Need a Fresh Education on Steely Dan? Start Here
By Rashod Ollison The Virginian-Pilot Steely Dan’s eternally hip, gloriously complex sound becomes more alluring with repeated listens. Sure, the cryptic lyrics, which Donald Fagen often sang with a dollop of sarcasm, still leave you scratching your head after all these years. But more than four decades since Steely Dan’s pop heyday, its meticulous synthesis […]
Klein and Hadar: Recording ‘Circus Money’
For his second solo album, Steely Dan’s Walter Becker made the unexpected decision to apply his band’s high production values and jazzy sophistication to the world of reggae. By Paul Tingen Sound on Sound The relaxed, sensual rhythms and simple harmonic structures of reggae are, in many ways, the antithesis of the cerebral jazz-rock universe […]
Walter Becker: Circus Money (2008)
By Mike Perciaccante AllAboutJazz.com Coming a mere 14 years after his last and first solo recording, Walter Becker’s Circus Money sounds a lot like Steely Dan — jazzy, pop rock over witty, somewhat sarcastic and sardonic lyrics. By mixing in a bit of reggae, Becker has released an album that fits in well with the Steely […]
Walter Becker ‘Circus Money’
By Dan LeRoy Hartford Courant It will be easier for most to talk about what Walter Becker’s second album (his first in 14 years) is not — an effort that sounds like another outing from best-known and -loved sophisticates, Steely Dan — than what it actually is. It’s as modest as Becker’s admittedly limited vocals, […]
Becker’s ‘Money’: Steely Dan Roots Show on Solo Album
By Richard Cromelin Los Angeles Times Walter Becker Circus Money Mailboat *** “Then you find you’re back in Vegas with a handle in your hand” goes a memorable line from Steely Dan’s debut hit, “Do It Again.” Thirty-six years later, Steely Dan co-auteur Walter Becker is still positioning characters in front of the slot machines. […]
