Donald Fagen's Nightfly - Love it or Hate it?

I think it is great but I find the drum tracks very artificial and tiring...catchy/distinctive at first then boringly monotonous.

If you read up on it......they went back and edited the drum track and replaced every beat with one "ideal" recorded beat....kind of an electronic drum set before they had electronic drum machiness such as became popular by groups like New Order. An interesting sound because each drum hit is so precisely the same even if the timing is still as per the drummer in the group studio sessions. (Syncopation varies but not the sound of each beat)

How can something be excessively perfect? Maybe it's like over abundant or past history.

I suspect the human element is lost or reduced when something becomes so perfect that every drum beat is identical. Sometimes it is the little imperfections or slight variations that give feeling to music... a little emphasis here, a little restraint there. There is a mechanical or machine like sound to the drumming on this album....stunning album, without a doubt, but unsettling to those who fear the Borg ;-)

Are we listening to the same LP? The Borg? Wow.

I accept Nightfly is a milestone recording along with DSOTM, Roxy Music Avalon and other great recordings out there. Musically it is great too...great piano, great vocals and great melodies.

My beef with the drumming is really a minor aspect.

As for the Borg.....just trying to resist assimulation of the machines, which are reponsible for "polishing" so much of what we hear today on commercial CD's (if you have been disappointed by a live performance then you know what I mean).