Sure, Steely Dan are a decade or two late in delivering Two Against Nature, their follow-up to 1980's Gaucho. But time may finally be on the side of rock's most illustrious music geeks. The old knock on Steely Dan was that they were too good for their own good — if Walter Becker and Donald Fagen had recorded a studio album during rock's extended Amateur Hour of the early Nineties, they might have been publicly flogged. Unlike their El Lay-based muso contemporaries, Steely Dan managed to mix their craft with some truly crazy shit — slick-sounding songs about perverts, assassins, divorcees and other non-strangers. We should have expected no less from a band named after a dildo, albeit a hugely literary one.
Notorious for shunning concert performances, Steely Dan's improbable live reunion in the mid-'90s eventually turned into a full-fledged reunion album. Since Steely Dan fans went two decades without even the hope of a new record, the very prospect was a delight, but it was also a little worrying, since a botched comeback would tarnish the band's legacy. Fortunately, Two Against Nature is as seductive and alluring as the best of Steely Dan's later work, with a similar emphasis on classy atmosphere and groove.
Most rock & roll bands are a tightly wound unit that developed their music through years of playing in garages and clubs around their hometown. Steely Dan never subscribed to that aesthetic. As the vehicle for the songwriting of Walter Becker and Donald Fagen, Steely Dan defied all rock & roll conventions…
The Sultans of Swing are at it again! Fresh from the success of their Two Against Nature record, Donald Fagen & Walter Becker decided to assult nature in their own way and assembled their troops for a 3 continent world tour. Mixing several of their long standing commarades in arms, such as Cornelius Bumpus (tenor Sax), Tom Barney (Bass) and Ricky Lawson (Drums) with newcomers to the Dan world such as Jon Herrington on guitar, they dazzled audiences world wide with both old chestnuts such as "My Old School" and "FM", together with new soon-to-be-standards such as "Cousin Dupree" and "Jack Of Speed". Prepare yorself to deal with the miracle of musical virtuosity! Prepare thyself for a massive dose of live Steely Dan.