Steely Dan – Gaucho (Remastered) (1980/2023) [FLAC 24bit/192kHz]

Steely Dan – Gaucho (Remastered) (1980/2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 38:06 minutes | 1,28 GB | Genre: Soft Rock, Jazz Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Geffen

The popular vinyl series of Steely Dan reissues continues with the 1980 masterpiece “Gaucho”, their last album before a lengthy 20-year album hiatus. The album also marked the end of a number of truly unrivalled years in music with classic album after classic album from one of the most exquisite sounding bands in music history. Like all vinyl reissues in the series, the album has been remastered by Bernie Grundman from an analogue tape copy.

The 1980 set featured the U.S. Top 10 hit “Hey Nineteen” and other enduring fan favorites such as “Time Out Of Mind” (with guest lead guitar by Mark Knopfler) and “Babylon Sisters.” Other guests on the album included Michael McDonald, Jeff Porcaro, Bernard Purdie, Ralph MacDonald, Hugh McCracken, the Brecker Brothers, and David Sanborn.

Gaucho, released in November 1980, reached No.9 on the all-genre Billboard album chart, also reaching the Top 10 in Australia, New Zealand, and Norway, and the Top 20 in such countries as Sweden and Canada. At the 1982 Grammy Awards, it won Best Engineered Recording – Non-Classical, and had further nominations as Album of the Year and Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals. It was certified both gold and platinum by the RIAA in January 1981.

The series is returning the band’s bespoke catalog to vinyl, in many cases for the first time since their original release. Gaucho has been remastered by Bernie Grundman from a 1980 analog tape copy that was originally EQ’d by Bob Ludwig. Gaucho and Aja have been thus remastered as there is no evidence that the original tapes, containing the flat mixes of the albums, were delivered to the record label, so it is presumed that the tapes no longer exist.Aja was cool, relaxed, and controlled; it sounded deceptively easy. Its follow-up, Gaucho, while sonically similar, is its polar opposite: a precise and studied record, where all of the seams show. Gaucho essentially replicates the smooth jazz-pop of Aja, but with none of that record’s dark, seductive romance or elegant aura. Instead, it’s meticulous and exacting; each performance has been rehearsed so many times that it no longer has any emotional resonance. Furthermore, Walter Becker and Donald Fagen’s songs are generally labored, only occasionally reaching their past heights, like on the suave “Babylon Sisters,” “Time Out of Mind,” and “Hey Nineteen.” Still, those three songs are barely enough to make the remainder of the album’s glossy, meandering fusion worthwhile. – Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Tracklist:

1. Steely Dan – Babylon Sisters (05:53)
2. Steely Dan – Hey Nineteen (05:09)
3. Steely Dan – Glamour Profession (07:28)
4. Steely Dan – Gaucho (05:31)
5. Steely Dan – Time Out Of Mind (04:13)
6. Steely Dan – My Rival (04:33)
7. Steely Dan – Third World Man (05:15)

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