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Elly Roberts reviews

Walter Becker: Circus Money

Distributed by
Sonic360

Released: July 2008

Rating: 4/10

Vote and comment on this album:

Steely Dan’s Walter Becker doesn’t rush his solo albums – his last was 14 years ago! Now we know why.

However much he and his cohort Donald Fagan try, the SD template isn’t too far away. Even the song titles have a SD ring to them.

Anyway, as ‘The Dan’, Fagan takes charge of the singing, and it’s easy to see why, because Becker is no singer. His paper-thin voice barely breaks loose, whereas Fagan has plenty of curl. Amazingly, his early efforts – Door Number Two and limp Downtown Canon are pretty, well, dull.

A massive improvement comes with reggae-infused Bob Is Not….and the cool bass-line is foot-tappingly infectious, though again his singing lets him down. He really isn’t comfortable taking the lead and it shows at every level, but as we’d all expect, the jazzy numbers and slick production help him get by. By the time he’s got to Upside Looking Down he’s got into his stride and the song is baring all the confidence of a Fagan song, curiously, but lacking any stardust.

The laidback Paging Audrey ambles along to a steady beat and has some nifty sax breaks courtesy Chris Hooper, but, you get the feeling this would have been a Dan reject. He improves again, well, a bit, on the quasi-scientific concept of the Selfish Gene, but annoyingly neither he (or Fagan come to that) fail to let their past develop into something really different, which shows their insecurity as artists, and too (artistically) joined at the hip of Steely Dan.

Skipping the next two for snooze value reasons, Becker perks up on the delightful Darkling Down: the chunky groove is really cool, despite the negativity of the lyrics. Quickly passing by God’s Eye View (something to do with experimental psychology terminology…yawn…yawn), I reach the American Songbook quality, well, the start at least, of Three Picture Deal. Its really ‘Dan-tight’ and definitely the albums best track, real quality stuff and by far the most adventurous (and interesting) but too long overdue.

File under: Can live without it.

Weblink: walterbecker.com

The full list of tracks included are :

1. Door Number Two 2. Downtown Canon 3. Bob Is Not Your Uncle Anymore 4. Upside Looking Down 5. Paging Audrey 6. Circus Money 7. Selfish Gene 8. Do You Remember The Name 9. Somebody’s Saturday Night 10. Darkling Down 11. God’s Eye View 12. Three Picture Deal

Review & concert pics copyright © Elly Roberts, 2004-2010.

As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B 37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.

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