Donald Fagen

Donald Fagen releases his new solo album, ‘Morph The Cat' on Reprise records on March 13(uk release) and March 14( North American release).
Such a thing doesn't come along that often. ‘The Nightfly', his first solo album was released in 1982, then followed ‘Kamakiriad' in 1993 and now a further 13 years later we have the third and final instalment of this said ‘trilogy'. Yes, because ‘Nightfly' delt with the dreams and hopes of a young adolescent, ‘Kamakiriad' though it had a science-fiction framework, delt with mid-life themes and crises. ‘Morph' deals with the latter stages of life, whereby Donald Fagen debates on choices made and reflections on the past and present, accepting his lot.
Steely Dan, the group that DF co-founded, just swallowed me up like a snake takes it's prey. I was consumed, I bit the bait hook, line and sinker. Theirs was an adult world, right from the beginning, a sound of finely crafted jazz-pop with quirky but intelligent stories as lyrics, set in New York or L.A, all which fascinated me. There signature was a timeless cool with world class musicians roped in to give the best they had. Such a majestic groove with no sampling, poor synth or drum machines, just live instruments. Their sound was and still is,(their triumphant return in 2001 after a 20 year hiatus with ‘Two Against Nature' which won grammy awards and the even better for me 2003 release of ‘Everything Must Go'), unmistakeable in it's wonderful dynamics and dimension.
Fagen with ‘MTC' just carries on in this assured way.
I remember being into Punk and New Wave, all youth and dispersed energy, yet needing the adult almost unreachable world that Steely Dan belonged in and I aspired too. Yet it obviously affected various types as the ‘Classic Album' programme on ‘Aja' showed, where I remember Ian Dury for example, simply crazy about their work.
What I love about listening to him and Steely Dan are the amazing chord sequences he manages to come up with , so pleasing every time. There are 8 new songs(a reprise of the song Morph The Cat strange and pointless doesn't count) and it seems that along with brilliant chord sequences and vocal harmonies, there is a tendancy to hit a groove, with each song bar one lasting at least 6 minutes. These involve clever, tantalising horn and/or guitar solo's meshing and weaving in and out of the song. It's not layered it's more ensemble, like a jazz-pop orchestra. Many of the performers are SD veterans of course.
‘Morph The Cat' is typical Dan of the ‘Aja' style with a funky bass backbone and excellent inter-twined musical performances. ‘H Gang', the first single' is as pop as DF gets like ‘Hey Nineteen' or ‘Cousin Dupree' and is sheer fun with it's latter day ‘Jailhouse Rock' lyrics. ‘What I Do' is my own personal favourite, in that it's one of the best songs I've ever heard favourite. So seductive in it's lyric and chord layout with a brilliant vocal performance by DF and backing female singers. Truly inspired.
‘Brite Nitegown' and ‘The Great Pagoda of Funn' are again slabs of SD circa ‘Aja' or ‘Gaucho' in style and content, expertly executed.
‘Security Joan' reminds me of the bluesy style of ‘Pretzel Logic' with a clever witty lyric of convoluted love for customs inspector. Great licks, with a wonderful chord sequence in the chorus that blows you away.
‘The night belongs to Mona' is another tale, about a vampire like lady, mysterious and enchanting.
‘Mary shut the garden door' has an almost jazz-funk feel between bass and guitar. It's dark in execution and it's ‘War Of The Worlds' style lyric, rather different to SD style even though the origin is obvious.
All in all, it's an album full of all those blatant and subtle textures, rhythms and grooves you want to hear from Donald Fagen. Another classic to add to his outstanding body of work which has no rival of its ilk in the modern pop world. I'm off to share a ‘Latte' with Morph.