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Old Steely Dan fans fall into two categories--devotees of such
acerbic early-'70s hits as Do It Again and Reeling in the Years
and those who caught on in 1977, when the gorgeously engineered Aja LP
became a staple of AOR radio. Two Against Nature (Giant), Donald
Fagen and Walter Becker's first studio album in 20 years, is a
surprisingly effective effort to satisfy both camps--and both
halves of the duo's cynical but perfectionist sensibility. With an
energy and commitment unheard of in rock reunions (cf. CSNY), the
old partners hire a new set of studio sharpsters and pick up their
jazzy rock where it left off. If anything, the grooves are deeper,
the harmonies weirder, the arrangements trickier than Aja's. But
where Aja was lyrically nonconfrontational, here Fagen's mordant
mindset adds bite to music that might seem merely slick otherwise.
Main theme, as befits a guy in his fifties: sex as power, with guy
in trouble whether victim or victor.
On Like Blood for Chocolate (MCA), Common, formerly billed as
Common Sense, comes up with some music that's as smart as he is.
Always uncommon in his no-bull respect for women and feet-on-the-ground
tales from the 'hood, here the Chicago rapper uses jazz
materials to construct beats that, like everything he does, feel
more fundamental than underground hip hop generally manages. Star
track: the nasty duet A Film Called (Pimp), with MC Lyte matching
him line for line.
Featuring ex-members of the dB's (Peter Holsapple), the Bangles
(Vicki Peterson), and the Dream Syndicate (Mark Walton), New
Orleans's Continental Drifters are loaded with songwriters. But on
Vermilion (Razor & Tie), the Drifter who puts
the songs across, and
writes good ones herself, is an ex-Cowsill: lead singer Susan
Cowsill, to be precise.
Playboy, Feb. 2000
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