Cosmic America

Our last review in the Steely Dan catalogue finds us in 2003, as we evaluate "Everything Must Go". There are some good moments, for sure! But there's also some questions. While Two Against Nature succeeded modernizing both the jazz sound and the lyrical inspirations of the classic Steely Dan formula, Everything Must Go comes up a bit short in both. It's absolutely not a bad album, but it ends up being a bit disappointing --- especially since it's the last album in the official canon. And while we'd go on to get some more solo albums and band tours, this ends up being the end of the road for the Dan's recording career.

After the surprise live show reunion of the mid-1990s, it felt like only a matter of time before Steely Dan were reconstituted as a studio act. And while it would take until 2000 for that to actually come to fruition, the result ended up being...pretty good, all things considered! It's definitely a DIFFERENT Steely Dan from where we left them in 1980, but the fans who followed the roadmap of Becker & Fagen's solo and collective efforts over the next two decades had a clue of what to expect going in. What we hear on this album is a fun combination of sardonic lyricism, an almost giddy basking in dirty old man-dom, and some genuinely interesting bemusement that they're still speaking to audiences so directly 30 years into their careers. It's probably not your favorite Steely Dan album, but it's actually a really good Steely Dan album if you can get past the overly professional fusion/jazz sheen that is caked all over the instruments.

The pause in the Steely Dan creative partnership had quietly eroded in the late 80s and early 90s, with Becker playing a key role in Fagen's second solo album. Fagen returned the favor on Becker's first solo album, which served as a prelude for the first Steely Dan tour in nearly 20 years.Becker's 11 Tracks of Whack gets the review treatment here, and ends up being one of the most revelatory moments in the Steely Dan experience. Becker's lyrical contributions to the Steely Dan atmosphere suddenly come in to crystal clear focus, as we hear him spinning tales of drug abuse, love, loss, mortality, and undercover aliens. The music is like little else we've heard from the duo --- a clean, uncluttered, almost overly pristine sound at times, but with plenty of beautifully played and produced moments. This one is almost always overlooked by Steely Dan fans, but is well worth checking out. Yes, Becker's voice falls firmly into the "non-traditional" camp, but once you get past that, you're left with a fascinating collection of songs that preceded the duo's official return to the studio at the end of the decade.

As you know by now, Steely Dan's core identity is the songwriting and performative partnership of Fagen & Becker. And with the group's dissolution in the early 1980s, the partners would occasionally step out on their own and create art under their own name. With Becker abandoning the continent and seeking sobriety and a general life reset after Gaucho, it was left to Fagen to make the first solo record of the creative partnership.The Nightfly came out in 1982, and it sounds...VERY MUCH like a Steely Dan album. Even with Becker gone, much of the machinery that made Gaucho was still in action, from the involvement of the engineering and producer staffs to the roster of ace session musicians. Add in Fagen's vocals and the expected intelligence of the lyrics, and many critics viewed The Nightfly as the natural progression of the Steely Dan creative spirit --- to the point that many critics immediately assumed that Fagen had done all the heavy lifting for Steely Dan and that Becker's contributions must have been comparatively minimal.But scratch the surface of The Nightfly and you'll notice something that rarely shined through on prior Steely Dan albums --- emotions of hope, wonder, wistfulness, and playfulness. It might have sounded similar but the sentiment was very different in spots. It's lovely, it's meticulous, and it's one of the best albums of the early 1980s, but it's not the automatic carryover from Gaucho that many assumed at the time.

The 80's have arrived in Steely Dan land, and all is not well. After the stratospheric success of Aja on the artistic and commercial stages, Becker & Fagen returned to New York and started work on their next album. But it ended up being a tortuous recording process, full of the kinda of troubles and difficulties that can produce both great art and great loss. And we got lots of those items with Gaucho. This ends up delivering an album that is both accessible and inaccessible at the same time --- an album with an icy, mechanical demeanor covering up a range of powerful emotions just below the surface.

Most artists or musical groups have a "pinnacle" album --- one where they demonstrate conclusively their talent, their genius, their modus operandi. Aja is that album for Steely Dan --- a brilliant mix of music, lyrics, production, and performance that elevates many of the core elements of their sound to a higher plane. Aja is a fascinating album because of how Steely Dan manages to make a work that many view as their quintessential sound, despite several key departures from what they did in their previous work. The lyrics are more optimistic and less cynical, the performances are both cleaner and less cold, and the overall atmosphere of the sound is welcoming instead of standoffish. The album stands as one of the signature sonic achievements of the 1970s, and contains so many layers that we're still trying to unpeel them after 25+ years of listening.

The mid-70s are in full swing, and the contemporary malaise is starting to seep into pop music more and more. Keen cultural observers Becker and Fagen are right there to document the troubles, and we get to hear a lot of those observations in the lyrics of The Royal Scam. We also hear some decidedly evolutionary changes in the music --- the influences of disco and hard rock start to seep into the cellar of many songs on this album. And yet --- you could make an argument that The Royal Scam is the least satisfying of the early Steely Dan records. There are some tremendous moments, but there are also some moments that don't feel entirely realized. It's still miles better than most albums that came out in 1976, but does it live up to the Steely Dan standard that the group has created in the first four years of their career?

Steely Dan has fully morphed into a studio-only operation at this phase --- the last tour of of the 70s ended in mid-1974, and Becker and Fagen had disbanded the permanent membership (except for themselves), opting instead for an alchemy of the best session players in Los Angeles. They also continued to sharpen their writing skills both lyrically and musically, adding even more acid wit and despicable characters to their songs. The result of all these changes is Katy Lied --- possibly the group's most subversive album, and certainly one of the most striking and unique major artist releases of the decade. Even a major recording malfunction couldn't blunt the impact of this collection of songs.

We're back after an unexplained hiatus, talking in-depth about a pivotal album in Steely Dan history, the 1974 classic "Pretzel Logic". As Becker & Fagen's vision for the band mutates into a largely studio-based operation, their conceptualization of songs and the way the music is recorded starts to change. This album introduces more sophisticated song structures, clearer recording approaches, and an increase in session players and guest musicians. Steely Dan starts to leave behind the "quirky songs by a quirky band" classification and replaces it with something deeper and more intriguing.

Sophomore albums are often a mixed bag, as musical artists grapple with the shock of going pro, the exhaustion of their initial written material, and the need to come up with new ideas while in a constant state of touring to support their first album. Steely Dan were no different, but unlike many groups who have wilted under the pressure, the band arguably puts forward a stronger effort than their debut. Countdown to Ecstasy didn't have a hit single, but what it did have was an incredibly solid and consistent group of songs that had numerous moments of brilliance. Attitude and atmosphere abound here, from the post-60s hippie kiss-off of Bodhisattva to the post-nuclear holocaust fantasy of King Of The World. The playing is sublime in places, as Baxter, Dias, and Fagan showcase their technical and melodic skill in equal measure. This album sometimes gets lost in the shuffle of Steely Dan albums, but you're doing yourself a huge disservice if you don't fully immerse yourself in it.

We launch our reviews of Steely Dan with an examination of the first official releases by the group - the stellar debut "Can't Buy A Thrill" and the long lost first single. It's a perfect way to delve into a group that fascinated 70s audiences and has consistently grown in stature and popularity over the last 20 years.Can't Buy a Thrill captures a group of young musicians in 1972 with a unique perspective on popular music and recording. Rock, pop, and jazz collide with fascinating lyrical narratives about gentleman losers and two-timers. The sound on this record is a prototype of the eventual Steely Dan sound, combining pop stylings of the early 70s with instrumental virtuosity and careful recording techniques.

On this very special episode of Cosmic America, we decide to tackle the last fully original studio release(s) of the Black Crowes by focusing on each as part of a larger whole. For most people, Before The Frost existed separately from Until The Freeze --- an album of mostly higher octane songs and big musical statements, and then a separate album of sparer, more country-tinged songs. However, co-host Galen Clavio has always been enamored with the vinyl release, which combined both into a LONG double album that ebbs and flows throughout its 90+ minutes of music. In many ways it's the epic album that the Crowes always needed to make, and it's arguably the best way to listen to this group of songs as a single piece. So join us on a bardic saga as we explore the incredible diversity and melodic appeal of the combined Before The Frost / Until The Freeze albums.

The Black Crowes broke up after the Lions tour, and it seemed fairly unlikely that they'd be getting back together anytime soon. Yet just a few years later, the band was back again, and with most of the original group back in place! But after a couple of tours and an aborted attempt at an album, things started to fall apart a bit --- Marc Ford left, Eddie Harsch got fired, and suddenly the number of prime-era members was down to the Brothers Robinson and Steve Gorman. They did manage to add North Mississippi All-Stars guitarist (and rock scion) Luther Dickinson, but it was unclear what the destiny of the band was at this point.Which is what made the content of Warpaint somewhat surprising. The album laid out a set of songs that was both familiar and unfamiliar territory for the Crowes - heavily blues influenced, but with specks of influence of the Robinsons' respective solo careers, plus a more subtle and refined lead guitar sound. The songwriting wasn't quite up to the all-time highs of some of the band's 90s output, but it was also pretty far ahead of By Your Side in places. To some degree the album feels like another progression of the group's sound from Lions, but in many ways it feels like a very different group. Somewhat lost in the shuffle of the group's albums, this one deserves to be revisited.

Lions represents an interesting turning point in the band's career. Their second "middle lineup" album, this one has a bit more juice than By Your Side, integrating some interesting new songwriting approaches and showing off their Led Zeppelin influences after their touring experiences with Jimmy Page a few years prior. It's not their best album by any means, and it suffers from some of the melodic and lyrical issues that By Your Side has, but it's also a very interesting album that deserves a closer look.

Less than a decade after a multi-platinum debut album, the Black Crowes found themselves at a crisis point in 1998. Gone were lead guitarist Marc Ford and bassist Johnny Colt. Gone was their label. And the Crowes found themselves increasingly out of musical fashion. Enter Columbia Records, Kevin "Caveman" Shirley, VH1 Behind The Music, and a new batch of harder-rocking songs. By Your Side retained some of the DNA of its unreleased predecessor, but had a completely different vibe - less The Band and more late-period Aerosmith. Rich Robinson took on most (if not all) of the guitar work, as guitar solos gave way to layered riffs. The results were...interesting. Some of the songs yielded a welcome shot of adrenalin, some felt like they were missing a few pieces, and a couple ended up being among the worst songs the band would officially release in their career. It's not a bad album per se, but for a band as talented musically as the Black Crowes, it was a bit of a disappointment. Still worth listening to, though! And we do that here, going track by track and evaluating what worked and what didn't on this album.

Following the Three Snakes and One Charm tour, the Black Crowes toured extensively, then pulled things back in to record a new album, entitled either "Band" or "The Band" depending on who you ask. The album was in some ways a continuation of the quieter approach on Three Snakes, but also went into some new and different directions, with more acoustic and country influences and less outright rock numbers. It showed off some interesting melodic twists to the group's classic formula, while maintaining Rich Robinson's rocksteady riffs as the core of most of the songs.Unfortunately, the album was rejected by the label, and started a chain of events that would see the Crowes lose 33% of their lineup and undergo a complete change in direction as far as their sound was concerned. The album was resurrected a decade later as part of the "Lost Crowes" CD release, which featured a complete and reproduced version of the album. And it's pretty good! We dive into this still-hidden gem and go track-by-track.

1996's Three Snakes and One Charm has all the hallmarks of a transitional album, yet it wasn't really viewed as such at the time. The last official album with what most would identify as the "classic lineup" for the band, it captures a group struggling at times to live up to the blistering pace their first three albums set. The songwriting is still quite good, the riffs are still memorable, the performances are professional and skilled, and yet it also feels like something is missing from the proceedings - a sense of direction, perhaps? Despite not being as good as its preceding two albums, TSOC is still a very enjoyable album with some memorable moments, and we go track-by-track to chat about every second of it.

Alex, Galen, and special guest Ron McFall are back to talk about the unreleased music from what was probably the band's most fertile time period --- the mid 1990s. Chris is in Los Angeles, Rich is in Georgia, but the music continues to come unabated, and there's a lot of magical stuff that didn't make official release from the various projects that were underway. We talk in depth about the Sweet Pickle Salad sessions (which only included Chris and Marc Ford) and the remarkable range and depth of those songs. We also take a listen to several songs recorded at various points between 1993 and 1995, including some cuts that were on the aborted "Tall" album as well as some songs that never got quite that far. Unreleased Crowes tracks can be pretty interesting and compelling, so if you're looking for some new ideas or directions on the music, this is a great place to start.

Amorica comes right in the middle of perhaps the greatest creative stretch in the Black Crowes career --- but also in the midst of the personnel conflicts that would ultimately tear the band apart. With Chris Robinson stationed in LA and Rich Robinson still in Georgia, the writing and recording process was not quite the same as it had been on the first two albums. The ideas are there, but the execution isn't as smooth as it was before. That said, Amorica knocks it out of the park by pulling the best ideas out, mixing in some new approaches (particularly involving ballads), and creating an impressive and unique hybrid of 70s rock sensibility and 90s rock reality. We are joined by our good friend Ron McFall on this episode, as we go track-by-track through Amorica.

Is this the Crowes' magnum opus? Quite possibly yes. The band was hot after two long tours on the success of Shake Your Money Maker, and back in the recording studio with fresh musical ideas, improved playing techniques, and most importantly, two new members of the band who would steer the ship in an new, more virtuosic direction. Marc Ford on lead guitar and Eddie Harsch on keyboards immediately wove themselves into the Crowes' 70s rock and roll stew, adding incredible textures and leads across a collection of songs that reaches for the same sort of soul-influenced canvas that bands like the Faces, Free, and the mid-period Stones and Allman Brothers painted. The results are stunning, and highlight all of the best aspects of the band.