Steely Dan – Can’t Buy A Thrill (1972/2022) [FLAC 24bit/192kHz]

Steely Dan – Can’t Buy A Thrill (1972/2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 41:10 minutes | 1,63 GB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Geffen

Led by the songwriting and virtuoso musical duo of Walter Becker and Donald Fagen, Steely Dan released an extraordinary run of seven albums on ABC Records and MCA Records from 1972 through 1980. Filled with topline musicianship, clever and subversive wordplay, ironic humour, genius arrangements, and pop hits that outshone the Top 40 of its day, their records, which were as sophisticated and cerebral as they were inscrutable, were stylistically diverse, melding their love of jazz with rock, blues, and impeccable pop song-craft.

Steely Dan’s classic ABC and MCA Records catalog is now set to return with an extensive yearlong reissue program of the band’s first seven records, which is being personally overseen by founding member Donald Fagen. The series kicks off with the album that started it all, the band’s legendary 1972 debut LP, Can’t Buy A Thrill, now in its 50th anniversary year, featuring the band’s breakthrough hits, “Do It Again,” “Reelin’ in the Years,” and the recently viral “Dirty Work,” with original lead vocalist David Palmer.

All albums are being meticulously remastered by Bernie Grundman from the original analog tapes except for Aja, which will be mastered from an analog, non-EQ’d, tape copy, and Gaucho, which will be sourced from a 1980 analog tape copy originally EQ’d by Bob Ludwig.Walter Becker and Donald Fagen were remarkable craftsmen from the start, as Steely Dan’s debut, Can’t Buy a Thrill, illustrates. Each song is tightly constructed, with interlocking chords and gracefully interwoven melodies, buoyed by clever, cryptic lyrics. All of these are hallmarks of Steely Dan’s signature sound, but what is most remarkable about the record is the way it differs from their later albums. Of course, one of the most notable differences is the presence of vocalist David Palmer, a professional blue-eyed soul vocalist who oversings the handful of tracks where he takes the lead. Palmer’s very presence signals the one major flaw with the album — in an attempt to appeal to a wide audience, Becker and Fagen tempered their wildest impulses with mainstream pop techniques. Consequently, there are very few of the jazz flourishes that came to distinguish their albums — the breakthrough single, “Do It Again,” does work an impressively tight Latin jazz beat, and “Reelin’ in the Years” has jazzy guitar solos and harmonies — and the production is overly polished, conforming to all the conventions of early-’70s radio. Of course, that gives these decidedly twisted songs a subversive edge, but compositionally, these aren’t as innovative as their later work. Even so, the best moments (“Dirty Work,” “Kings,” “Midnight Cruiser,” “Turn That Heartbeat Over Again”) are wonderful pop songs that subvert traditional conventions and more than foreshadow the paths Steely Dan would later take. – Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Tracklist:

1-01. Steely Dan – Do It Again (05:57)
1-02. Steely Dan – Dirty Work (03:09)
1-03. Steely Dan – Kings (03:47)
1-04. Steely Dan – Midnite Cruiser (04:12)
1-05. Steely Dan – Only A Fool Would Say That (02:55)
1-06. Steely Dan – Reelin’ In The Years (04:37)
1-07. Steely Dan – Fire In The Hole (03:29)
1-08. Steely Dan – Brooklyn (Owes The Charmer Under Me) (04:21)
1-09. Steely Dan – Change Of The Guard (03:39)
1-10. Steely Dan – Turn That Heartbeat Over Again (04:58)

Download:

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