Steely Dan 10: Two Against Nature

Maybe it wasn’t inevitable, but after Steely Dan started touring regularly in the ‘90s, fans wondered whether a new album would happen. Indeed, Two Against Nature arrived nearly 20 years after Gaucho, and went on to win four Grammy® awards, including Album of the Year. But since the Grammys had been racking up several instances of questionable decisions, one must approach this album with skepticism. Given the Dan’s brand, it’s the natural response. They don’t exactly pick up where they left off, but with the loping rhythms, electric piano, different guitarist, horns, and drummers on every track, and Donald Fagen’s trademark sneer in the lyrics, there’s no mistaking said brand.

“Gaslighting Abbie” is generic CD101 jazz, a little too snappy for the crime elliptically described in the lyric. The story in “What A Shame About Me” is a little better—maybe because it’s a musical rewrite of “Josie”—wherein the narrator both shows his age and his wisdom in life choices. The title track is already a welcome departure, with the free jazz horn at the top and the non-standard meter covering up the gobbledygook of the lyrics. If the come-on in “Janie Runaway” is any indication, the dirty old man of “Hey Nineteen” hasn’t grown up any, and the leering seems to continue in “Almost Gothic”, which is more musically interesting, mostly because it’s based on “Deacon Blues”.

We hear echoes of “The Royal Scam” and “The Caves Of Altamira” in “Jack Of Speed”, another cautionary tale about drugs with a memorable hook in the title. But the catchiest song on the album is also the most cringey; “Cousin Dupree” is an aging slacker living on his aunt’s couch skeeving on a younger relative. At least the object of his desire has the sense to rebuff him. We’re not sure that can be said about “Negative Girl”, and by this time on the album we’re wondering whether the boys should be subject to court-ordered therapy for their proclivities. At least the vibes solo fits in with the more dreamy vibe. A sharp snare drives “West Of Hollywood”, which helps keep up interest even through the lengthy solos over the coda.

Most of the songs on Two Against Nature are in the same tempo, with little variation in dynamics, and very few hooks really leap out. Even after several listens it’s not easy to tell one track from another—or as they put it themselves in “Negative Girl”, “the original classic thing, more of the same”. If anything, this will send listeners back to the old albums.

Steely Dan Two Against Nature (2000)—2