Donald Fagen was the one and only mastermind behind Steely Dan, the iconic jazz-pop band from the 1970s. Fagen’s solo album is a continuation of the band’s early ’80s work. It features carefully crafted and arranged pop songs that are much more substantive than their attractive surface might suggest. The Nightfly, his 1982 solo album, was his best. It covered the same ground and yet exceeded them in ambition and accomplishment. Fagen was struck with writer’s block after The Nightfly’s success. He continued to contribute music to films and wrote a column in Premiere magazine for the remainder of the 1980s. He toured in the early 1990s with the New York Rock and Soul Revue while he was finishing material for his second album. The 1993 Steely Dan album Kamakiriad was produced by Walter Becker, his former Steely Dan producer. It sounded almost like Aja using ’90s technology. Although it had some success on adult contemporary charts, it was overshadowed when Steely Dan decided to re-form Steely Dan. The tour was a huge success. After the reunion, 2003’s Everything Must Go was released. Fagen began work on his third solo album. Morph the Cat, a cat who was possessed by the spirit of death, appeared on March 2006. Fagen began his first solo tour shortly after the album was released. Allmusic
