CAN'T BUY A THRILL

Here we are, at the beginning of the STEELY DAN train. Their debut, CAN'T BUY A THRILL, I have to admit has better songs than I initially remembered, but after listening through their stuff again in preparation for writing these reviews, I discovered some nuggets on it. Tracks like "Do It Again", "Kings", "Changing of the Guard"... Hell, even "Reelin' in the Years" was a much more solid track than I remembered initially. But then we get songs like parts of "Brooklyn" and the dreadful closer and I wonder why I'm listening to it again.

That having been said, this album is also noteworthy for being their most schizophrenic. They hadn't really decided on a firm identity for this one, which results in AOR if well-written jazz-pop on "Reelin' in the Years" and some spacey, adventurous and downright proggy instrumental work on "Do It Again". I can pick a handful of songs and, if the album was cut to their mold, we'd have a bonafide prog rock album through and through, and others that would leave this as a particualrly good rehash of the band AMERICA, a band traditionally (and rightfully) known for producing bland soft rock pablum. It's this facet that hurts the band the most on this album; we can all deal with a band song or two, and even SELLING ENGLAND has "More Fool Me" (which I am fond of, but clearly doesn't fit). But the way that they didn't push their strongest songs together to the front or back to create an easy way to delineate the listening experience leaves a rather uneven feel.

Good songs, and definitely worth it for a Dan fan, but anyone else can pass on this one. It pains me, but two stars.*

* - If you pass on this album because of this rating, at least look into the four songs mentioned in this review before you decide on it. This album isn't great, but it has great material on it.