Donald Fagen-Sunken Condos

MoFi - thanks for the heads up. I did not know but will be ordering immediately.

FWTW...my impressions on first listen to "Sunken Condos": impeccable musicianship, arrangements, & production - but the songs? Kind of boring w/the exception of "Out of the Ghetto" (Isaac Hayes)and maybe, "Slinky Thing". Of course, quite often, a recording that does not immediately grab me on first listen becomes a favorite later on. Maybe that will be the case here. But I have a sense the pursuit of technical perfection has somewhat squeezed the life out of things in this recording. It doesn't always have to happen that way, but seems like a spark of some sort is missing from many of the tracks. Again, just my impression after a first listen. I'll be checking it out again for sure.

Hey Wolf - don't get me wrong. I am very much aboard the Steely Dan/Becker/Fagen bandwagon! Mediocre from them is only so by comparison to the better/best stuff of their own work. I do have to say I don't always have a "sterile" reaction to their music on first listen and also I am not yet calling Sunken Condos, mediocre. Might just take a while to warm up to it. As you point out, I do wish there were more bands working in whatever pop/rock/jazz/R&B genre "the Dan" has carved out over the decades. (BTW- I'm going to have to check out that September collaboration thing).

This is definitely growing on me. From the get-go thought the lyrics were very good. Took some time for the music to open up to me (don't mean sonically). Especially liking guitar work by Jon Herington. Thinking it might rank above Morph the Cat in my little hierarchy of Fagen work.