{"id":39617,"date":"2006-01-23T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2006-01-23T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/citizen-steely-dan\/"},"modified":"2006-01-23T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2006-01-23T00:00:00","slug":"citizen-steely-dan","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/citizen-steely-dan\/","title":{"rendered":"Citizen Steely Dan"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Every time I think the scumbags in the music industry
\ncan’t sink any lower, they find another way to bilk people out of
\ntheir hard-earned money.<\/p>\n

Now, you may think that it’s awkward for me to say
\nthis in an article about Steely Dan — and, if you’ve followed the
\nreviews in this retrospective, you know that I’ve generally given
\ngood marks to Steely Dan’s albums. But what else can you say about
\na box set that features all of the group’s studio albums, track for
\ntrack, and throws in as bonus features a whopping four non-album
\ntracks, only one of which wasn’t available anywhere else, other
\nthan “snow job”?<\/p>\n

You mean to tell me that, well over a decade after
\nWalter Becker and Donald Fagen called it a day, the only “bonus
\ntracks” that could be included were “Here At The Western World”
\n(previously found on Steely Dan’s Greatest Hits<\/i>), “FM”
\n(included on Gold<\/i> and A Decade Of Steely Dan<\/i>), a live
\nversion of “Bodhisattva” (found on the re-issue of Gold<\/i>) and
\na demo version of “Everyone’s Gone To The Movies?” Four words: give
\nme a break.<\/p>\n

Granted, the “albums” on Citizen Steely Dan<\/i>
\nwere all re-mastered for this set, but these are now commercially
\navailable individually. And, granted, you can’t deny that hearing
\nSteely Dan’s popular songs is still thrilling, no matter what
\nformat they’re in. But isn’t that what the numerous best-of
\ncollections are for?<\/p>\n

If you’ve read my takes on the individual albums, you
\nalready know what to expect from the same material on Citizen
\nSteely Dan. And I’ve already made my feelings known about the track
\n“FM”. So, let’s focus on the remaining three songs. The live take
\non “Bodhisattva” features a rambling, incoherent two-minute
\nintroduction that could have easily been left on the cutting room
\nfloor without hurting the song. Musically, it’s not a bad
\nperformance, making one almost wish that Becker and Fagen had
\noccasionally pulled the group out of the studio to do a few live
\ndates. Likewise, the demo version of “Everyone’s Gone To The
\nMovies” doesn’t necessarily break any new ground, but it is
\nsomewhat interesting to listen to.<\/p>\n

That leaves “Here At The Western World” — a track
\nthat, frankly, could have made The Royal Scam<\/i> (from whose
\nsessions it came) a much better album. Chances are good that
\nlisteners already will know this one from their well-worn copies of
\nSteely Dan’s Greatest Hits<\/i>, but each time I’ve listened to
\nthis one, it’s like a drink of cold water on a hot day.<\/p>\n

So why am I so harsh on this set? Is my rating based
\non the music? Not totally; while I really wish there had been more
\nrarities included in this four CD set, the music still stands on
\nits own. No, I’m so harsh on this one because, if you already own
\nall of Steely Dan’s albums, there really is no good reason to spend
\nupwards of 50 bucks on this set. (This, of course, comes from
\nsomeone who wanted the first Led Zeppelin box set for all of one
\nrare track, so I admit some hypocrisy here.) If you don’t own the
\nSteely Dan catalog, then maybe it is worth picking this one up just
\nto get everything – at least up until the group’s mid-’90s reunion
\n— in one fell swoop. Otherwise, avoid this marketing debacle.<\/p>\n

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