Steely Dan

While hip-hop songs read like shopping lists, the old and rich duo Steely Dan take a sharp-eyed look at a tanking America, on a set about people losing it all. The tunes are uniformly strong, though only the title track ranks among the group's all-time best. Lyrics like "if somewhere on the way we got a few good licks in/no one's ever gonna know" will never land them on Oprah.

Of course, the new Steely Dan album sounds great. Try downloading this sucker, the
grizzled grouches mutter. We dare you. Even a deaf dolt like you, Mr. 80GB Information
Thief, can discern how much textured dimensionality the conjoined soul thrushes and
tasty licks that trick up "Godwhacker" lose in MP3 form. If the world is headed for a fall, as is
foreseen here from "The Last Mall" to "Everything Must Go," it might as well go do... More >

Dying in stereo, nothing left to say ("Slang of Angels," "Things I Miss the Most") (Grade - *)