Steely Dan
The Definitive Collection
(Geffen)
First Appeared in The Music Box, August 2006, Volume 13, #8
Written by John Metzger
It isn’t because The Definitive Collection, Steely Dan’s latest
retrospective package, trades East St. Louis Toodle-Oo for the radio
staple Dirty Work that it effectively supplants its predecessor A
Decade of Steely Dan as the premiere, single-disc overview of the band’s
career. Nor is it because it also features a pair of the group’s more recent
compositions (Cousin Dupree and Things I Miss the Most). Instead,
it’s because it includes these tunes while also presenting its full slate of
material in chronological order. Right from the opening strains of Do It
Again, the first track on (and first single from) Steely Dan’s debut
Can’t Buy a Thrill, it was apparent that there was more to the partnership
of Donald Fagen and Walter Becker than initially met the eye. Over the course of
its career, the ensemble slowly revealed exactly what that something was. With
each album that it released, Steely Dan refined and polished its impressionistic
style, creating increasingly complex and heady music to match its cerebral
character sketches. At first glance, the shimmering, Latin-tinged percussion of
Do It Again and the cool jazz of Things I Miss the Most bear
little resemblance to one another, but The Definitive Collection
masterfully connects them by tracing the arc of Steely Dan’s transformation from
the driving groove of Bodhisattva through the spacious sophistication of
Deacon Blue to the seductive precision of Hey Nineteen. Although
there are a few notable omissions — Josie, Don’t Take Me Alive,
and Any Major Dude Will Tell You, among them — their inclusion would have
added little to the story that is told. Likewise, an equally stuffed second disc
would be overkill for the uninitiated and too redundant for the fans. For once,
a retrospective that has been dubbed The Definitive Collection actually
lives up to its name. 
The Definitive Collection is available from Barnes & Noble.
To order, Click Here!
Ratings
1 Star: Pitiful
2 Stars: Listenable
3 Stars: Respectable
4 Stars: Excellent
5 Stars: Can't Live Without It!!
Copyright © 2006 The Music Box