1001 Albums Summary

Interesting combination of new wave and funk influences. Almost sounds like a punk band that started to break out of the confines of the genre. Can definitely hear this as an antecedent of Soul Coughing 10-ish years later.

Solid record, with impossibly close harmonies and typically impeccable recording of Steely Dan's output. Overall, doesn't quite meet the scale of it's own ambitions, which seem to be to combine all popular American music forms (and a little English folk music) into a cohesive whole. The record is predictably strongest on tracks where Fagen and Becker are in their most comfortable milieu of jazz-pop synthesis. 'Ricky' is one of my least favorite of their more popular songs, but it and the album's namesake track due have more confidence than the groups forays into other genres.