Donald Fagen
Sunken Condos

LA RECENSIONE

The music is (more or less) the same. The voice is the same. Even his face is the same. At least since 1982, when the Mainstream scene witnessed his unsurpassed masterpiece, "The Nightfly." That for Donald Fagen the passage of time was a mere abstraction became evident with the release of the latest Steely Dan albums, those post '00, which manage to match (or almost) the masterpieces written thirty years earlier. 

This "Sunken Condos" does even better. 

Towards music critics, I feel neither resentment nor admiration. There are the good ones and those who aren't. And on ondarock (and tell me it isn't true!) in the review of this album, there is (amid things agreeable, not agreeable, and banalities) an interesting insight: "Fagen's music wasn't innovative thirty years ago, just as it is not outdated now." And it's true. Donald Fagen's music, as we've already mentioned (and here lies part of his genius), knows how to remain unchanged over time. Do you remember those fusion tracks that were featured as the soundtrack for some sophisticated PlayStation games (like Gran Turismo)? Well, more or less, this is it.

But let's move on to the album. 23 musicians contributed to its realization (fewer than usual!). Despite the premises, Fagen excellently refrains from offering a Deja-vu sensation, except for a few forgivable moments. The music seems more to bounce and float (hence the cover with the marine backgrounds) and offers us a sound between pop, jazz, and fusion, with a nod towards black music (see, or rather, listen to the cover of "Out Of The Ghetto"). The album that should be heard at the hairdresser's, in the supermarket, at the bar, in the pizzeria. Naturally (but it almost didn't need to be said) the album respects all the canons of Fagen's music, above all the recording, still exceptional (low fi? What's that?) and the tendency to, how to say, play and sing almost "without exaggeration", his usual snobbish attitude that makes him so damn likable.

Are there weak points in this album? With hand on heart, I say yes. The tracks, including the single "I'm Not The Same Without you" seem anonymous when removed from the context (the album), like many ambient records, on the contrary (but NOT, for example, "The Nightfly").

Pronk to everyone.