Forces of nature bring Steely Dan back together

TWO AGAINST NATURE
Steely Dan
Giant Records ****

In the 1970s, Steely Dan erected a polished musical edifice that housed some of the most memorable tunes of the decade and gave rise to the notion that a band really didn�t have to be a band to be a band.

Confusing? Perhaps. But logical when you pick apart the particulars. Steely Dan the band plunged into the music scene in 1972 as five guys playing the songs of its founders, bassist/guitarist Walter Becker and keyboardist/singer Donald Fagen. By 1974, however, B&F had grown sour on the industry�s record-release-tour imperative, so they dissembled the original lineup and reinvented Steely Dan as a studio-only, composition- and execution-oriented ensemble that would give them the power to record their music exactly how they wanted it to be recorded.

Becker and Fagen, in relentless pursuit of the perfect take, would bring in different musicians to perform different parts on different songs, literally playing musical chairs until the right combination of session men was found for a particular song. In extreme cases, they didn�t even play on their own tunes.

The twin peaks of this novel system were �Aja� (1977), the album Steely Dan will most likely be remembered for, and �Gaucho� (1980), the production of which would make for a good opera. Once these heights had been scaled, Becker and Fagen parted ways, and Steely Dan was no more.

But the two kindred souls were never totally isolated from one another. Fagen recorded his first solo album, �The Nightfly� (1982), sans Becker, but the latter returned to produce -- and play and compose on -- Fagen�s second solo album, �Kamakiriad� (1993). For his part, Fagen co-produced and played on Becker�s woefully overlooked 1994 solo effort, �11 Tracks of Whack.� Musically, these solo albums delineated where Fagen ended and Becker began, helping to clarify their respective influences on Steely Dan compositions, something that was simply impossible to do prior to 1980.

This is the basic background necessary to understand what�s going on with �Two Against Nature,� the first studio album by Steely Dan in roughly 7,300 days. Because of their recording history, as Steely Dan and as solo artists; because people associate Steely Dan with sophisticated musical and lyrical expression; because of their �reunion� tours of the 1990s; because the album took so long to appear; because the duo is notorious for word play and mind games; and for a zillion other reasons, to say �2vN,� as the album has been dubbed on the Internet, was a highly anticipated release would be a tragic understatement.

Steely Dan 2K has undergone some basic changes. Most striking is Becker�s presence on guitar: He plays both rhythm and lead guitar on four of the nine new tunes, and lead only on two others. Though he did play guitar on previous Steely Dan albums, that instrument was more often than not farmed out to session players, especially for solos, in order to attain the right sound. Becker also plays bass, traditionally his primary instrument, on six of the tunes.

Fagen�s duties, on the other hand, have remained unchanged: He�s on the Fender Rhodes, piano, Wurlitzer and clavinet, and he does all the singing. He has also done the lion�s share of the horn arranging, a facet of composing in which he has taken an especially keen interest since his first solo album.

One other aspect of �2vN� sticks out like a sore thumb. Becker and Fagen really didn�t alter the bands they employed for each song, at least not by Steely Dan standards. With five different players, the greatest amount of rotation occurred behind the drums, not at all surprising considering B&F�s age-old preoccupation with getting the perfect drum track. (They created the world�s first drum machine, a crude but effective beast they named Wendl, because they were having problems with human drummers during the recording of 1975�s �Katy Lied.�) But other than this and some jumping about on sax, the core band really doesn�t change. And, in keeping with a tradition noted above, the composers bowed out on �Negative Girl� and left the playing to a six-man band.

The Steely Dan of today is definitely not the Steely Dan of the last millennium. �Two Against Nature� does not sound like that Steely Dan. At all. The main reasons for this are Becker�s crisp guitar and Fagen�s horn arrangements, the styles of which have simmered and developed thanks to their solo projects (two of which were basically collaborations) and the tours of the last decade.

I don�t think the album is what fans expected. Though Becker and Fagen are saying it�s their best work ever -- that it�s the purest representation of their vision of Steely Dan -- I think people, like me, were anticipating a richer sound and more eclectic subject matter. By rich I mean the sonic depth of �Aja,� the moody groove of �Katy Lied� or the raw grind of �The Royal Scam.� People thought, I�m sure, that Steely Dan today would be something other than an amalgam of Fagen�s and Becker�s solo work, which is, I think, the best way to describe the sound of the new disc.

Regardless of its surprising sound, the album was worth the wait. Though it takes a few goings-through to really understand what�s been done and to hear the various planes on which Steely Dan is operating, it is completely within the realm of reason to say that Walt and Don still have it. It�s only that the �it� has changed.

You�ll notice that I didn�t talk about individual songs from �Two Against Nature.� Why? Because to discuss Steely Dan as they are today doesn�t necessarily require that type of dissection. The sound and who they used to capture that sound are the key factors needed to approach the album; from this, all else follows. But don�t take my word for it. Steely Dan will begin their world tour in Japan in May. Spend the yen and catch what is sure to be a superb show.