Steely Dan – Katy Lied (2025 Remaster) (1975/2025) [FLAC 24bit/192kHz]

Steely Dan – Katy Lied (2025 Remaster) (1975/2025)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 35:41 minutes | 1,28 GB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Geffen

At long last – newly re-mastered! The jazzy and exploratory Katy Lied features fan favorites such as “Black Friday,” “Bad Sneakers,” and “Doctor Wu.” It was the first Steely Dan album after the departure of guitarist Jeff “Skunk” Baxter and drummer Jim Hodder as core duo Donald Fagen and Walter Becker’s opted to cease touring and focus on studio work. In a 2019 retrospective, Pitchfork enthused, “It captures Steely Dan in the thick of it all, still hungry and energized by their early burst of creativity but not taking anything for granted. Before Katy Lied, Steely Dan were a rock band, but this is the record where they became something else.” Steely Dan’s groundbreaking fourth studio album, Katy Lied. This gold-selling classic, originally released in 1975, has been meticulously remastered.

Formed by Walter Becker and Donald Fagen, Steely Dan redefined the boundaries of rock and jazz fusion with their sophisticated compositions and meticulous studio production. Pitchfork described Katy Lied as “a turning point where Steely Dan became something else entirely,” praising its thematic explorations of betrayal, disillusionment, and sophistication. Mastered directly from the original master tape by legendary engineer Bernie Grundman, Katy Lied is pressed on 200-gram Clarity Vinyl® at Quality Record Pressings. With its purest possible sound reproduction, this UHQR release delivers Steely Dan’s polished jazz-rock fusion in stunning clarity and depth.

Featuring iconic tracks like the upbeat yet biting “Black Friday,” the poignant ballad “Doctor Wu,” and the catchy groove of “Bad Sneakers,” Katy Lied captures Steely Dan at the height of their creative powers. The album is lauded for its intricate production, innovative use of top-tier session musicians, and complex yet accessible melodies. It also marks the debut of Michael McDonald’s signature vocals within the Steely Dan soundscape.Katy Lied, Steely Dan’s fourth album, was notably recorded after Walter Becker and Donald Fagen decided to stop touring and dissolve “Steely Dan” as a working band to instead function as a Becker/Fagen-plus-session-players project. While a few folks remained from their last touring lineup—founding guitarist Denny Dias and recently recruited guns-for-hire Jeff Porcaro (on drums) and Michael McDonald (on inimitable vocals)—more than 17 other players and singers were credited on the sessions for Katy Lied. While this number pales in comparison to the 40-plus people who played on Aja just two years later, it was a clear declaration that Steely Dan had decided that “the best person for the job” was more important than “these are the five people we work with because that’s the band.” (Few things say “let’s get the best” more overtly than a session list that includes Rick Derringer, Hal Blaine, Phil Woods, Larry Carlton, and Victor Feldman.)

While Katy Lied announced a transition into Steely Dan’s full-time studio-rat phase, it also marked the end of their prime early period. While the band’s debut (Can’t Buy A Thrill) is widely viewed as a tentative outlier in their discography, the unofficial triptych of Countdown to Ecstasy, Pretzel Logic, and Katy Lied represents “old era” Steely Dan at their apex, before their airless pursuit of perfectionism permanently transformed their sound on albums like Aja and Gaucho (and, to a less successful degree, The Royal Scam). To be sure, Katy Lied is the least band-oriented of that early trilogy, but is still an excellent representation of that warmly dynamic—and definitively more rocking—approach to jazz-rock. There’s much more emotional resonance and empathy lyrically and a little less detached cynicism here than the band would be justly accused of in their later years. Yes, the verses are still pretty cryptic, but they still pack a punch; the post-apocalyptic tenor of “Black Friday” probably rings more true in these modern times while the epically strange “Doctor Wu” is the band at what may be their lyrical zenith. (Of course, the former sits atop a bouncy, upbeat groove, while the latter is gentle and atmospheric, showing that irony was nonetheless in ample supply here.) The second half (with the exception of “Any World [That I’m Welcome To]”) is a little weaker than the largely unimpeachable first half, but Katy Lied nonetheless stands out as a superb example of Steely Dan at their very best of all their iterations. – Jason Ferguson

Tracklist:

1-1. Steely Dan – Black Friday (03:40)
1-2. Steely Dan – Bad Sneakers (03:21)
1-3. Steely Dan – Rose Darling (03:06)
1-4. Steely Dan – Daddy Don’t Live In That New York City No More (03:17)
1-5. Steely Dan – Doctor Wu (03:56)
1-6. Steely Dan – Everyone’s Gone To The Movies (03:46)
1-7. Steely Dan – Your Gold Teeth II (04:15)
1-8. Steely Dan – Chain Lightning (03:02)
1-9. Steely Dan – Any World (That I’m Welcome To) (03:57)
1-10. Steely Dan – Throw Back The Little Ones (03:17)

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