More Steely Dan
More Debut Albums of Interest
- This outstanding pressing boasts solid Double Plus (A++) sound or close to it on both sides – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
- After doing so many shootouts over the years, and hearing the guitars and vocals jumping out of our speakers right into our listening room, we now find the recording a lot more to our liking than we used to
- If you made the mistake of buying the Speakers Corner reissue from 2000, this is your chance to hear the record with all the energy that this band put into their debut, the kind their Heavy Vinyl took out!
- 4 1/2 Stars: “Walter Becker and Donald Fagen were remarkable craftsmen from the start, as Steely Dan’s debut illustrates. Each song is tightly constructed, with interlocking chords and gracefully interwoven melodies, buoyed by clever, cryptic lyrics.”
Vintage covers for this album are hard to find in clean shape. Most of them will have at least some amount of ringwear, seam wear and edge wear. We guarantee that the cover we supply with this Hot Stamper is at least VG, and it will probably be VG+. If you are picky about your covers please let us know in advance so that we can be sure we have a nice cover for you.
Both sides have a tight and punchy bottom end, with the kind of energy and bottom end weight that brings this music to life. The soundfield is big and open, with a three-dimensional quality that most copies don’t have. The top end is sweet — just listen to the cymbals on Do It Again.
Dirty Work sounds great here — rich and sweet mids, breathy brass, and lots of texture to the vocals. Often this track sounds dull and dubby, but it’s actually just a case of the mix being smoother than most of the other songs on the album. If this track sounds smooth, and the other songs sound right, the tonality is correct for the whole side because that’s what the best copies sound like.
Flip the record over and the good times begin all over again. Elliot Randall’s guitar on Reeling In The Years has the meaty texture and uncanny presence to take the song to an entirely new level. Fire In The Hole is dynamic with real weight to the piano, and the double-tracked vocals on Turn That Heartbeat Over Again sound rich and poppy the way they should. (more…)