Much like Kamikiriad, <\/i>Donald Fagen\u2019s rather dull follow-up to The Nightfly<\/i>, his newest effort is a rather uninspired outing through the light jazz rock that has served his 40-year career rather well, following up 2006\u2019s frustrating but somewhat worthwhile Morph The Cat<\/i>.<\/p>\n
First single \u201cI\u2019m Not The Same Without You\u201d was a canny choice; it strongly recalls Steely Dan, Fagen\u2019s old band, then adds a rather funky bass line and tasteful horns. It\u2019s derivative of anything on Katy Lied<\/i> with the rough edges smoothed out; to compensate, Fagen sings the kiss-off lyrics with gusto: \u201cI\u2019m evolving at a really astounding rate of speed \/ Into something way cooler, than what I was before \/ I feel much stronger than I have in years \/ My mind is sharp and my spirit\u2019s high.\u201d That is how you do a breakup letter, kids.<\/p>\n
The record mines the same adult contemporary light jazz as previous Fagen and Steely Dan outings, making it a welcome release for fans, but most everyone else will likely see this as pleasant background music. It takes several listens to grasp the subtleties \u2013 the guitar solo on \u201cWeather In My Head,\u201d the Stevie Wonder feel of \u201cThe New Breed\u201d \u2013 that color the songs. One shouldn\u2019t have to work that hard to find highlights, though.<\/p>\n
A cover of Isaac Hayes\u2019 \u201cOut Of The Ghetto\u201d arrives in the middle of the album; easily the best track here, it hints as to what this album could have been. Fagen reportedly urged the players to be funky, but little of that comes through in the tempered final songs, as if cutting loose would be antithetical to Fagen\u2019s approach to music. Songs like \u201cSlinky Thing\u201d and \u201cMiss Marlene\u201d want so much to break out of the tasteful background mode but just can\u2019t overcome the dull arrangements and playing.<\/p>\n
Doing his best to bring in da funk is Steely Dan bassist Freddie Washington, who has only improved with time. His work alone is reason to check this out, especially on songs like \u201cGhetto\u201d and \u201cGood Stuff.\u201d Fagen also deserves praise for his singing, which has more bite and passion than anything he\u2019s done since Two Against Nature.<\/i><\/p>\n
Fagen keeps things to a brief 44 minutes, the length of an album, but that\u2019s not a complaint with music this bland. The best of the man\u2019s work, both solo and with Steely Dan, gets a nagging melody or lyric lodged in your head, but precious little on Sunken Condos <\/i>inspires or warrants repeated listens\u2026for those who happen across this unaware. For Fagen and Steely Dan fans, it\u2019s merely a continuation of what you already like about this stuff in the first place, albeit with diminished returns.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":31131,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7902],"rating":[11204],"class_list":["post-42817","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-donald-fagen","rating-rating-c-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/42817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/45"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42817"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/42817\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=42817"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=42817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}