Steely Dan - Pretzel Logic

8.5 - USA - 1974

Without a doubt the most Dan-like of all the Steely Dan albums. Don't let the band photo fool you; at this point the nominal group was solely a studio exercise for assorted hired gun ringers (poor drummer Jim Hodder was relegated to a few backing vocal parts with Jeff Porcaro and Jim Gordon sharing the actual drumming duties). Again, the songs are (almost) uniformly excellent with just the right amount of slickness and polish. "Rikki Don't Lose That Number" and "Any Major Dude Will Tell You" are the platonic ideals of 70s lite jazz rock -- precisely the sound that soft rockers like Jackson Browne and Fleetwood Mac tried, but failed, to achieve. Whereas the uninitiated frequently deride the Dan for their overproduced softness, the group's secret weapon was an underlying bristle of snark (as well as their inveterate cleverness) that manages to subvert the oh-so-radio-friendly sheen of their work. Whatever. Some excellent deep cuts, too, with the double drum bonanza of "Parker's Band" and the more stripped-down and fairly affecting (for a Dan song) "Charlie Freak". "East St. Louis Toodle-Oo" kinda sucks though with its jaunty clichéed jazzism obnoxiously supplemented by Skunk Baxter's talkbox.

Best quote from the reissue liner notes: "What rude auteurs, their hour come 'round at last, slouched towards shameless bicoastalism, their jazz-pop Tiger! Tiger! Burning Bright? Go figure."