Steely Dan - Everything Must Go (9 tracks) +Album Reviews

Steely Groovin

K. L. Woomer | San Antonio Texas | 06/10/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I have listened to this CD numerous times already through the streaming audio at the steely site and I must tell you that it is really good listening. First of all, I liked SD last CD called 'Two Against Nature' and played it to death, but, I like this release better. Tighter groov, I know that sounds impossible, but even the drums are done better on this recording. not so lifeless.1. At The Last Mall, very good, very end of the worldish lyrics and a great groove.2. TIMTM, a great song about reflection, the chorus sticks in your head like all great SD songs.3. Blues Beach, a funky little piano beginning, this song continues the great groov that this band has on this recording. The line 'things can get a whole lot worse before suddenly falling apart' is funny and depressing all at the same time.4. Godwhacker, another funky tune, with a nice bass line at the beginning.. and the whole idea of the song is lost on me, but that is no big deal with SD, a lot of their classic songs I have no idea what they are singing about, but swear that I believe it is whatever they are saying....5. Slang Of Ages, Straight from 14 tracks of Whack is Walter Becker on lead vocals. First time the guitar player co writer of SD sings, and he does a great job.. and if you like his vocals check out his solo cd called 14 tracks of whack. Slang Of Ages is a great soft song with a jazzy chorus, that again, sticks in your head.6. Green Book ... a tune that you can grab a gal and just dance around to. Has a very distinctive korg organ sound.7. Pizaleen. THIS SONG IS THE BANGO BANG CLASSIC TUNE FROM THIS CD. It has a sound that only SD can cook up. the chorus and back up singers just hook up big time on this song. Pure candy for the ears.8. Lunch With gina. Good fun song about, I think, a stalker. Good stuff.9. Everything must go. Check out the jazzed out beginning. Almost dissonate. then slammo, into groov and the song finishes out the cd with a nice ending. Very strong.This whole cd is great. No duds at all. will warm my CD player for a long time.Lots to listen to on this outing.Buy it, and get one for a friend."

The Real Deal

Patrick E. Molloy | Tustin, CA United States | 06/11/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"A mere 3½ years since the release of Two Against Nature, Donald Fagen and Walter Becker return with a new set of tunes, an encouraging sign for any Steely Dan fan.Any album that these guys release is going to get my business, but as with Nature, this new one doesn't scale the heights of the seminal Aja or the equally impressive Gaucho albums. But that familiar Steely Dan sound, replete with succulent horn sections, twisting guitar licks and seductive background vocals, is here in force. It's the real deal, and it will soothe that certain nerve in a Dan fan that only their music can salve.Unlike many of their prior albums, this one was recorded with an ensemble of musicians that don't change much from one track to another. Returning from Nature are guitarist Jon Herrington, vocalist Carolyn Leonhart and her trumpeter brother, Michael. Old SD stalwart Hugh McCracken returns to add some crispy guitar licks of his own. Fagen sings all but one track's lead, and is a little more present on keyboards than he was last time. Becker plays all bass, all solo guitar, and sings "Slang Of Ages".A few of the songs on this disc seem to go back over previously-traveled territory. "Blues Beach", promoted for radio airplay, bears more than a passing resemblance to "Tomorrow's Girls", from Fagen's Kamakiriad album. "Pixeleen" and "Lunch With Gina" evoke memories of "Negative Girl" and "Almost Gothic" from the Nature disc.The other radio-promoted song, Everything Must Go", has a good beat and you can almost dance to it; but the best song on the 42-minute disc is one that you'll have to hear on your own: with a title like "Godwhacker", it's a safe bet that it won't be filling the airwaves. Yet, it, more than any tune on the disc, will satisfy the thirst for more tunes in the vein of "Peg" or "I Got The News".Twenty years between Gaucho and Nature, and now only 3½ years until Everything Must Go. At this rate, we should get a new round of Becker and Fagen before the end of 2006. Unless, as the title track of this disc suggests, they're "goin' out of business, everything must go"."

Have your credit cards ready.

Joe Goodwin | Dallas Texas | 06/11/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"When asked in an interview for Rolling Stone about their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Grammy for best album of the year, Becker and Fagen replied "Things really haven't clicked for us yet." There's something comfortably reassuring about their tongue-in-cheek, self-deprecating lyrics, major-chord melodic lines, and white-man's overbite grooves. The two best efforts (as if acknoldeged as such by the artists themselves) bookend the track list - 'The Last Mall' and 'Everything Must Go' - the 'Peg' and 'Deacon Blues' of this album. There's a not-so-subtle homage to Sydney Bristow in 'Pixeleen,' and the patented 'Dan' groove is in full chat for 'Blues Beach.' Some charts work better than others, as has been the case over the years, but like old Coltrane records, the more you listen, the more you get the nuances. There are a couple of especially bad MIDI keyboard patches, which begs the question: why not rely on the piano, Fender-Rhodes and Hammond B3 they (and their session group) are so adept at playing? But that hardly distracts from the otherwise Zappa-esque production quality. Whether this effort will recruit a newer generation to the fold is yet to be seen. As for faithful (and graying) 'Dan' fans, operators are standing by."

Treats Lurk Within

steak boy | san francisco, ca | 06/11/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"When the details surrounding the next Steely Dan album were made public, I had a pair of thoughts: first, that the inclusion among the session players of straight-ahead jazz piano god Bill Charlap (with whom, oddly enough, I share having come into this planet on the same day) harkened the second coming of Aja; and, second, that the title "Everything Must Go" hinted that this release would be their last. Time will tell how my second thought pans out. And I was way off on the first point -- this is not an overtly jazz-flavored album. This is, instead, probably the hookiest and most melodic album that Donald Fagen and Walter Becker have teamed up to craft. A jazz fan, I don't mean that jazz isn't melodic or reliant upon `hooks.' But as a Dan fan, having learned that what these two gentlemen started out to do was to craft popular music (regardless of how many among the populace were actually listening), I say that if--God-forbid--this actually were to be their last release as Steely Dan, "Everything Must Go" would prove that the boys not only never strayed far from their mission, but that they made sure to emphatically drive the point home before they turned off the lights. I'd go on to say that the songwriting takes center stage on EMG. Oh sure, the playing offered up by the principals and their studio contributors is spot-on (nothing shy of world-class musicianship every rears its head within a mile of a Steely Dan album after all). But unlike SD offerings so far, missing from the mix here are the jaw dropping riffs and solos by hired guns that characterize much of their previous work. No individual's contribution here sits aside Steve Gadd's outro on `Aja,' or Larry Carleton's (so the story goes) on-the-first-take contribution to `Kid Charlemagne,' or even, more recently, saxophonist Chris Potter's astounding imprint on 2000's "Two Against Nature." And it's fine. Really. Nothing's missing.So here's a collection of tunes with blues and r&b changes that take the occasional unexpected turn, with lyrics that far transgress the realm of the wry, and with melodic and harmonic content that is infectious enough to crawl into your ear and lay its eggs in your brain.I'm now old enough to be not cool in a time when it's not cool to be a Steely Dan fan. Bah. Whatever's cool can go pound sand. Long after the current flavor-of-the-month pop trollop has retired from his/her ultimate gig as [a store] greeter, this album will stand as an airtight, rock-solid offering both relevant to its time and true to its creators' roots. I won't give up the 5th star easily--I'd reserve that for the likes of John Coltrane's "Giant Steps," Led Zeppelin's "Houses of the Holy," or for "Aja." That said, this is a super-strong piece of work that fits well among Don's and Walt's thirty (!) years of crafting music. Heck, even the youngsters who are sharp enough to know to question the coolness of what's currently cool may find a treat lurking within."

Everything sounds good!

umesh_madan | Seattle | 08/02/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Real instruments. Real drums. Real guitar. Real voices. Real music. Real talent. More than 3 chords. No JLO! Who'd have thunk it was still possible in a world of 21st century machine music?"

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	Steely Dan Everything Must Go Genres: Pop, Rock, Classic Rock Track Listings (9) - Disc #1 The Last Mall Things I Miss The Most Blues Beach Godwhacker Slang Of Ages Green Book Pixeleen Lunch With Gina Everything Must Go 2003 release from Becker and Fagen on Reprise, their first since 2000s Two Against Nature.
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