Countdown To Ecstasy

Lifeless noodling from technically competent musicians. Also cocaine. Pass.

King Of The World has some of the most infuriating keyboard solos I've ever heard. More like a musical than jazz rock at times.

Had iets meer verwacht, maar Dan niet he?

Toch wel behoorlijk ouwe lullen gezapigheid troef.

Kind of all over the place style wise

Really only last couple of tunes make it worth it.

I don't have much to say, this was ok ish but didn't stand out or give me any strong feelings!

So, I don't know what I expected with Steely Dan. For some reason I thought they were like a ZZ Top vibe, maybe a little rocky, but these fellas are smooth as butter. The songs are pure fluff, with the notable exception of 'Showbiz Kids' which is asking questions that we're still asking today (why are rich people so terrible? how do you make the world a better place and provide for everybody?). Just smooth (barely) rock with fun riffs, and impressive musicality. Favorite Track: Bodhisattva

Sounds of the 70's.

Donald Fagen y Steely Dan son de esas cosas musicales que me vienen grandes. Nunca lo he disfrutado aún sabiendo que debe ser algo bueno. Y finalmente rollaco, suena bien pero no me produce nada. Un 2.

Fine. Not my thing. Not that interesting to me. 2/5

Sometimes I think it’s annoying how steely Dan has to have everything in every song, there’s like congas and triangles, quartal licks, a trillion different chords and rhythmic hits and vocal harmonies and organs and Rhodes and piano and xylophone and vibraphone and wah pedals and slides. It’s just so much and even though the playing is great it just always sounds a little stale and uninspired to me. The playing is obviously flawless but I never really feel anything when I hear steely Dan Trashy guitar tone in Boston rag is cool There are better steely Dan records

It’s the same song over and over.

decent but forgettable

Parfois OK, souvent plombé par des solos jazzy interminables. Pour papas américains seulement. Bof bof.

First time I’ve ever listened to Steely Dan, and unfortunately, I shan’t be rushing back to them. This is nondescript, generic, monotone and quite frankly dull soft rock. Nothing exciting, adventurous or intriguing about it sadly. So, a big miss on this one.

It wasn't even bad but i'm resentful that u think i needed to listen to this before i die

I just don’t understand the fucking Dan.

This album was pretty boring. I don't have much else to say about it. None of the songs were terrible but I didn't find any of them interesting, either.

That was really long for 8 songs. I thought for sure that it had already started over on me. Otherwise it was ok, but not really my jam.

Not for me

I didn't like Steely Dan before and that hasn't changed, but if you do like them you'll find most of this album sounds like their other music. There were 2 songs that had a southern/rockabilly vibe to it, which was different.

I hope there isn't any more Steely Dan on this list.

Some interesting ideas with a big bucket of LAME dumped on top of everything

So middling as to almost not even exist.

2.8

What is even the point of steely dan

Bodhisattva good but I could leave the rest

Pretty decent

not for me

The fourth and final Steely Dan album I'll get. Thank god. It's just bland shit. Like the other albums, this is just boring dad rock. Nothing special. They never tried to make their music interesting after the first album. It's just boring and unexceptional. They didn't need to be on this list four fucking times. One was sufficient.

Kubyertos.

Never listened to them before because I assumed that were inoffensive yacht rock … and it was.

Wasn’t fussed with this. Bodhisatva was too hard in Rock Band as well

Great musicianship, but not something I'd ever listen to again. This whole record is just too self-satisfied. It would almost be better without the vocals.

Okay

Pretty forgettable. Like it's fine but I'll never put it on again. I can't think of anything else but Jackson tucker and his sweatpants though

a star for every song that I'd like to hear again

kind of bland and overstays it's welcome.

I would guess Can't Buy a Thrill is in the list, but still not sure why this the pick. Just seemed a little bland

Bof. On est ici dans une période de transition pour Steely Dan. On est entre le pop rock west coast du début des 70' et l’hybride jazz fusion pop de la fin des 70'. Ça donne quelque chose de ni intéressant, ni accrocheur.

pappa like steely dan

En ollut kovinkaan vakuuttunut, mikään biiseistä ei sillee iske vaikka ihan letkeää onkin.

Lite engasjerande

My first real encounter with Steely Dan was playing Bodhisattva on Rock Band. It quickly became one of my favourite songs in the games. The album in general isn't quite as strong for me as Aja, and mostly falls a bit flat after the opening track.

Feel like I maybe missed a trick with this one, but I found this deeply forgettable.

🤌🤌🤌

Audio equivalent of a sensory deprivation tank. It nothing’d me.

a countdown that never reaches blast-off

A few good songs reminded me of high school

Always found these guys too precious.

Actually almost rocks a bit at times. I prefer it to Can't Buy a Thrill (especially the way you can look at the album cover without having to regret that you have eyes), though I still don't care for it that much; the same sort of smugness permeates this album just like the first, and the line about "the Steely Dan t-shirt" in "Show Biz Kids" does have a certain acidity to it, but possibly not in the way Becker & Fagen intended...

Considering where this band got their name, this album was rather a let-down. I’m not quite old enough for this stuff to be nostalgia-triggering, and I don’t find much about this that I actually enjoy. Bland tunes, a voice I barely noticed and lyrics that didn’t really grab me. My Old School put me in mind of Minder and it’s theme tune. That’s about all I can remember about this, tbh. Countdown to the end of the album, more like. Not for me.

A little too clever and knowing. I like my music dumbed down. There's some great musicianship and production, if that's your kind of thing. I quite enjoyed the riff on Boston Rag. But it's hardly Teenage Kicks.

Listened to it and then completely forgot about it. So obviously wasn’t so bad that I noticed, but also not good either

Reconheci o primeira música, mas esperava mais das camadas de jazz.

I notice the social commentary much more than on albums I’m slightly more familiar with. This was nice and pleasant, but hardly any of the catchiness of other stuff by them.

Ziemlich belangloser Jazz-Rock ohne wirkliche Höhepunkte.

Not for me mate.

Not my bag. Experimental rock with jazz influences…

Not for me. Pretty dull.

I couldn't really find anything that stood out to me about this album. Not bad but not really my thing.

I can appreciate the technical aspects of this album, but blimey it's boring.

Ya es el segundo disco que me sugieren de este artista y sigue sin entrarme. No más, por favor. No obstante, The Boston Rag es un temazo.

Wel oke

meh

Forgettable

I guess they’re saving all the ecstasy for their next album? Very meh. Unremarkable.

Sounded fresh for the early 70's, nothing really stood out though.

All kinds of interesting genre mixing going on and I have to acknowledge the great technical skill on display. But as a matter of taste I just don't really like it.

Not bad

Nothing against Steely Dan, but this is not their best work.

This is music for the whitest of white people, isn’t it? I’ve never listened to an entire album by Steely Dan before and I’m all but positive this means we’ll be seeing that Aja record. I don’t mind this stuff; the guitar work is impressive and I get that there’s overall some good musicianship here. But it just doesn’t seem to go for any big emotional moments at all. Like, if I have a choice between listening to this or any of the early Yes records, I’m picking the Yes records every single time. On repeat.

Quite jazzy, not what I was expecting

Definitely no Aja

Surprised by the range of influences on this LP, but a bit disappointed in how monotonous the album becomes after the first few tracks

Pretty boring.

I can respect their talent as songwriters. Not my style though.

Didn’t enjoy it…never have been a fan

Have nothing good or bad to say, I enjoyed it somewhat

meh

19th May 2021 Listened to this throughout the day in the flat whilst cooking, in the shower etc. Didn't really enjoy this one, a bit too white dad rock for me trying to be something it's not.

2/5

less good than the others

Not as good as Can't Buy a Thrill. Sounded ok, but honestly kind of bored me.

omg I'm so over the way this makes me feel like an old man.

Destila calidad, buena voz y mucho sintetizador. No me ha despertado muchas emociones

I'm not sure if I've listened to this record before. It felt a little... gimmicky? Was that the point? I didn't like 'Bodhisattva,' and 'My Old School' was forgettable. I like their other big records more, I swear!

Bon album, mais n'a pas éveillé en moi des sentiments particuliers.

Not bad. Not my favorite. I got bored listening to it.

Have not done enough cocaine to fully appreciate this album. Best I can do is 2 stars.

Meh

There isn't much to dislike about this album, but similarly there isn't much to like either. It's difficult to have any opinion at all. Nothing much happens, good or bad. The averageness of it begins to hurt about halfway through. By then I would have been happy to hear something I disliked, just to get away from all the bland.

I'm lukewarm towards Steely Dan even on their best albums, and this didn't feel like one of their best albums. Pretty sleepy at points, and while it's admirable they try different sounds in a few songs, overall this thing feels inessential to me.

Reminds me of if jazz, swing and jam bands had a baby. It's a little frenetic for me sometimes, a little cheesy other times.

Did not care for this or Steely Dan. It was fine. Really did not like the noises I heard on Show Biz Kids. No thanks.

Meh.

Lite tråkigt men ett par goa melodier men inget jag väljer att lyssna på igen.

Countdown to Ecstasy? More like Countdown to Snoestasy!

En lähellekään ekstaasia päässy, mut ei tää huonokaan ollut

Show Biz Kids is nice. The Man Don't Give a Fuck by Super Furry Animals has taken that sample. But Donald Fagen is being an ass about it so that's -1!

3/10 - boring, another 70s album which doesn't advance the genre

Too much Steely Dan.

Bodhisattva

So bland and middle of the road that I have trouble forming any kind of opinion about it at all. I looked back at my previous Steely Dan reviews and this is the fourth time in a row I have thought this! How can I listen to four albums from an artist and still not think anything about them? Just for that, the sheer nothingness of them, I think I have to give this one star only, to mark this achievement as the most boring band from the list.

Another one where it appears and your mood sinks. Did not persuade me to change my mind about Steely Dan.

A man shhh'ed me and I'm still not over it

Masturbation, just because you've put some effort in doesn't mean you're going to hit the pillow, sometimes it barely ejects. That latter effort is my summation of Steely Dan

Je respire... C’est enfin fini. Le supplice touche à sa fin et je peux vous dire que le sentiment de soulagement est bien plus intense que n'importe quelle mélodie de cet album. Après m’être farci Aja, Can't Buy a Thrill et Pretzel Logic, j’arrive au bout de la "période Steely Dan" de ce projet. Quatre albums. Quatre fois la même sensation de vide intersidéral habillé en costume de soie. Quatre fois la note de 1 sur 5. C’est une constante, une ligne droite, un encéphalogramme plat de mon intérêt pour cette musique. Je ne vais pas tourner autour du pot : ce Countdown To Ecstasy n'a rien d'extatique. Le titre est une publicité mensongère, un appât pour gogos en quête de sensations fortes qui finissent par se retrouver devant une tasse de thé tiède. Le seul compte à rebours que j'ai ressenti, c'est celui des minutes qui s'égrenaient sur mon lecteur, me rapprochant de la libération. Pourquoi tant de haine, me direz-vous ? Ce n’est pas de la haine. La haine, c’est une émotion, une réaction viscérale, quelque chose qui brûle. Ici, il n’y a rien qui brûle car tout a été refroidi à l'azote liquide. On est dans la même veine que les trois autres disques : du soft rock parfaitement calibré. Un mélange de rock, de pop et de jazz, mais un jazz qui aurait été passé à la javel. Je regarde la pochette, je regarde les noms des musiciens. Ce sont des Musiciens avec un grand M. Des virtuoses, des mecs qui dorment probablement avec leur métronome. Il n'y a pas un pet de travers, pas une fausse note, pas une harmonique qui dépasse. Chaque coup de batterie est pesé, chaque solo est mesuré au millimètre près. C'est la perfection au sens littéral du terme et le perfectionnisme de Becker et Fagen me fatigue car c'est une insulte à l'imperfection magnifique du rock. C’est une démonstration de force technique qui finit par devenir une faiblesse émotionnelle. C’est la musique de gens qui n’ont plus rien à dire mais qui savent très bien comment le dire. Je ne vais pas vous détailler les morceaux un par un. À quoi bon ? Que ce soit Bodhisattva ou My Old School, c'est la même tambouille sophistiquée. Des accords de jazz complexes plaqués sur des rythmiques rock pépères. Alors voilà, c’est mon dernier mot sur ce groupe pour ce projet et Countdown to Ecstasy repart avec son petit 1 sur 5 bien mérité. Ce n'est pas une question de talent, c'est une question de vision. Et nous n'avons pas la même vision du monde.

I made it through 1.5 songs and gave up.

This album does not need to be listened to. It is very technically well played music, but it is boring and soulless. Not sure why this is on the list other than a strong bias in the list towards 70s rock.

Someday my kids are going to be listening to music I liked when I was a teenager, and they're going to say "oh no, it's music my mom likes". That's how I feel about this album. It's music my mom and her brothers probably liked, and it does nothing for me.

Just because you can play all sorts of instruments doesn't mean you should.

🥱 I tried, but holy fucking boring 😴

Nah

UGH Steely Dan.

Oh dear

The rock with simple vocal perhaps. Dont like at all

Just painful

of all the Steely dan albums they could choose, i don’t understand this one. terrible

Thought you’d trick me into listening to Steely Dan…

They can’t keep getting away with this

I absolutely loathe this band. So awful.

supermarket music

Not impressed. Early prog rock, which means we're gonna try to be jazz folks but we don't have the credentials to actually be jazz folks. It all descends into musical masturbation. Let's cut it out and quit being pretentious. My Rating: 1/5 joints

More Steely Dan?! How? Why? I could’ve gone my whole life without listening to a single song and now I’ve listened to three albums of this boring drivel. There are very few artists who have produced enough great music to feature multiple times on a list like this and Steely fucking Dan certainly ain’t one of them.

Awful

Not good

Dirge

Never got behind Steely Dan - not for me.

Someone missed their D.A.R.E. Class.

Not my Style, zu jazzig

Enough Steely Dan already.

weird vibe, no likey

To add insult to injury, I listened to this whole album in bumper to bumper traffic on 75 yesterday over roughly 15 miles.

Countdown to never having to listen to a Steely Dan album ever again. 5…4…3…2…and 1.

Probably the most disgusting album title of all time. Just eww. I’ve had enough of these guys. So much so that I don’t even need to hear this to know it’s a 1. Fuck them.

I don’t know what it is about these guys but I just really don’t like it. Great musicians but it just falls flat for me. And then it starts to bother me. And then I get angry. And countdown to ecstasy? What the hell is that? If it were a Prince album named that, I’d be like…yeah, that guy fucks. But these jabronis? Nah.

Not my favorite. I am glad I gave it a listen but I wont be recommending it or going back. Great riffs, a bit samey. Talent exists but not my thing. I feel there is better in that era. I've never listened to Aja and assume it will pop up on this list at some stage.

It was the countdown to ecstasy of this album ending.

Terrible. Its like Toto without hits. And its the second Steely dan album you made me listen to in a month.

It's like all the shit bits of rock and all the shit bits of jazz had a retarded baby

Another steely Dan album 😩

Some high level wankery. I really hope this is the last Steely Dan record I have to listen to on this list.

Yawn…

Stop with this crap

Steely Dan have some good songs but there aren’t any in this album.

The nicest thing iI can say is i am just never in the mood to hear Steely Dan. That being said, for about 45 seconds, the middle of that first song was interesting.

Meh

I’m still counting.

The most over rated bamd in the history of music.

I just don't get Steely Dan. People race about Aha, but it's just boomer bullshit. This record is no better.

It's just shit. Like everything else they do.

I still find these guys incredibly tiresome, the more I hear them. There is a bit more prog rock styling on this album, which doesn’t help its case for me. The rockabilly styling on the opening track was an immediate turn off.

I hate Steely Dan

Wow. Boring and bad.

Didnt Listen. Too jam-bandy for my taste in the moment.

God these guys suck, who the fuck listens to Steely Dan? This is music for people that don't actually enjoy listening to music they just want to show off their $10,000 Soundsystem while looking down at you, guess what, you're an asshole and so are Ted Steely and Dan Danielson! Ain't nobody fucking to this record BTW

Really bland listen. I know now why I'd never heard of this album before.

Niet mijn stijl

I ALREADY RATED THIS YOU IDIOTS

I asked for jazz - that’s not jazz

If I was in a bad mood this would piss me off so bad i gave aja a two because it is "good" on paper. To balance it out ill give this a strong 1

Like listening to AOR mixed with early Yacht Rock. Which is a truly awful sound.

Rock jazz.....nice....not....dull as fuck

I'm really sorry Ryan, but I just couldn't get into this.

Encore un inconnu !!! Je reconnais ne pas être un grand fan des groupes américains... Mes ecoutes de Steely Dan m'ont toujours désarçonné par un côté "jazz" qui m'est totalement étranger... Mais, n'etant pas obtus comme certains Angles, je vais de ce pas sur Spotify pour ecouter ce "machin"... Après tout, je m'est peut être ben gourré ? Tout est possible ! -+-+-+-+-+-(-(-+-+-+-++-)-)+)+)-))---- Bon après écoute, je confirme hélas mon appréciation initiale : trop jazz, trop de cuivres, trop américain... Désolé... De mémoire, l'album GAUCHO avait eu du succès du fait de la participation de Mark Knopfler...

Busy friday, not the vibe, sausage and peppers, drink, allison hit me, dans cafe, jps again, drunk

Kjedelig

Steeley Dan just does not wow me.

Blandy McBlandface

boring. grandpas music.

Really not my cup of tea. Ray seventies soft rock at its worst!

There's much better Steely Dan than this album. There's much better everything than this album. I haven't figured out why it's on this list but it's not good and not special or important.

I refuse to listen to Steely Dan