COUNTDOWN TO ECSTASY

Countdown To Ecstasy is the second studio album from US act Steely Dan. I was pleasantly surprised by the cool and laidback pop/ rock style on their debut album, even though it doesn´t really fit my taste in music. The same can be said about Countdown To Exstasy.

The music is still laidback pop/ rock but some cocktail/ lounge jazzy parts has sneaked into the already pleasant soundscape. Songs like Razor Boy, The Boston Rag and Your Gold Teeth profits greatly from this new feature in Steely Dan´s music. As a consequence those three songs plus the opener Bodhissattwa and the closer King of the World are the best tracks here. The latter should even interest more hardcore progressive rock fans with its synthesizer themes. The low points here are Show Biz Kids which leaves me indifferent because it´s too repetitive and trivial and My Old School which has some female soul/ gospel backing singing which is just something I generally loathe ( of course with a few exceptions like Over-Nite Sensation by Frank Zappa).

The musicianship is plain excellent. There are so many things going on in these songs that really makes them worth listening too even though the overall sound is very commercial. In that respect I would put Steely Dan in the same catagory as Supertramp and 10CC.

The production from star producer Gary Katz is fantastic. Pleasant and warm.

Countdown To Ecstasy is the kind of sunday album you put on when your hung over from the night before. Great chill out music that´s still intelligent and clever enough to not become average pop/ rock with no interest for prog heads. I can feel a smile creeping unto my face while listening and that´s always a good sign. 3 stars is well deserved here even though there are a few lesser exciting moments among the good ones.