Steely Dan - Gaucho (1980)

Note: this release was originally purchased as a cassette, later replaced by a CD. In addition to a regular CD, I also own this music on a DTS Surround Sound DVD Audio disc, a format that never really caught on.

Not as consistently good or musically complex as Aja or Katy Lied, this smooth pop has a few good songs sprinkled among the 7 here. The duo (mainly Donald Fagen) almost seems more concerned with how things are produced than what is produced. Spending over a year in the studio and using 42 different musicians, this sterile, microproduced album earned a Grammy award for Best Engineered Recording, Non Classical. Still, when the grooves are right, they're right; I like the lyrics about awkward, misanthropic, aging hipsters (I can relate) and there's some great hooks throughout. Four songs on the album get regular playing time around here. Oddly, a Steely Dan shuffle has recently become my go-to music for evening steak grilling. Go figure.

Press of the time:

• Stereo Review: "it's too smooth a ride to pass up"
• Smash Hits (7 out of 10): "melodic, subtly jazz-flavoured funk."
• Rolling Stone (★★★★½): "wholly satisfying and seemingly spontaneous"
• Downbeat (★★★★): " some of the most elegantly structured, cleanly executed music rock and roll has yet produced."
• CashBox: "the masters of sophisticated jazz/pop fusion have returned in their usual dynamic fashion."
• Robert Christgau (B-): "originally entitled Countdown to Lethargy."
• High Fidelity: "my candidate for best of the year"
  

Now somebody please explain the back cover photo to me.

Album chart peaks:

• Billboard Top 200: #9
• Billboard Rock: #12
• Billboard R&B: #19
• CashBox: #8
• Rolling Stone: #5

Tracks:  My favorite track is Time Out Of Mind. Decidedly more popish than your usual SD, I just can't resist the syncopated hook of the chorus. I also like Babylon Sisters, Hey Nineteen, and the title track with solid sax work from Tom Scott. I usually skip My Rival and the plodding Third World Man.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD:  One of my first CDs, probably one of the first 5 discs I ever purchased. Back in 1987, CDs were so cost-prohibitive that I couldn't afford to purchase them to discover new music; I couldn't take that chance. So the (admittedly ill-advised) process of replacing LPs with CDs began almost immediately after the purchase of a CD player.

Previously revisited for the blog:
Everything Must Go (2003)
Two Against Nature (2000)
Alive In America (1995)
A Decade of Steely Dan (1985)
Aja (1977)
Katy Lied (1975)