Donald Fagen-Sunken Condos

Do you guys really think SC is a good sounding recording? I find everything, especially vocals, to have a muffled quality. The HD Trracks download is better in that regard.

So far, and I'm a huge fan of SD and DF, I find the album strong on grooves but weak, melodically. I'll see if I grows on me, though.

I personally like the recording but all Fagens work blurs together. It all starts to sound the same with different lyrics. I like it but he hasn't moved forward. I don't like the same old same old.

Donjr,

What I find a little disappointing about SC is, again, the lack of strong melodies, which adds to that "sameness," I think.

Look, the guy is an incredibly gifted composer and there are great songs on all his earlier solo albums:

Nightfly: Every melody is a gem; not a clunker on that whole album. "Maxine" and "Green Flower Street" are especially strong, IMHO.

Kamakiriad: "On The Dunes" is gorgeous, and the opening bars of "Springtime" are as lovely as anything he's ever written.

Morph: Strong title tune, and "The Night Belongs To Mona" is a truly remarkable song.

But again, what I find on SC is mostly catchy grooves... not much else. But I'm gonna keep listening to see if it grows me.

Just my 2 cents.

Reopening the case, Fagan competes with himself and can't win that one as he keeps sounding like Donald Fagan, but I think the album (CD) sounds great sonically with layers of funk buried in there, and I like the fact that all the songs have individual tonal makeup. Some recordings from "Dan et al" have this "spitty" cymbal tone that I find strange, but after a few listenings SC's weirdness is refreshing and the cymbals and everything else sounds nicely detailed on my system. For new stuff, what the hell else is out there? A note about "Fagan Faves", "Snowbound" on Kamakiriad has a fave GREAT bass tone.

This is definitely growing on me. From the get-go thought the lyrics were very good. Took some time for the music to open up to me (don't mean sonically). Especially liking guitar work by Jon Herington. Thinking it might rank above Morph the Cat in my little hierarchy of Fagen work.