Steely Dan 11: Everything Must Go

In the modern era, three years was a relatively short gap between albums, and especially so for a band like Steely Dan. Sure enough, Everything Must Go served up another familiar-sounding assortment of laid-back adult contemporary music that was too smart for anyone’s good. Some have called it a concept album, which is fair; there’s not a story per se, but a theme does run through it.

After opening with a flourish right off of Aja, the PA announcer in “The Last Mall” tells shoppers to pay up before Armageddon hits, but the message is lost under the standard shuffle. “Things I Miss The Most” is more standard fare, a lonely guy summing his life up after a breakup, but once he starts cataloging everything, it’s clear she’s better off without him. “Blues Beach” is obscure again, though there’s a suggestion this narrator is heading to rehab. Much more clever is “Godwhacker”, wherein a team of hired guns prepare to take out the Almighty. “Slang Of Ages” is the fourth song in a row with the same meter, but Walter Becker sings it, and that helps it stand out, but it’s yet another song sung by a guy trying to score with a young lady half or even a third his age. (Maybe that’s why Donald Fagen didn’t provide the vocal, as he’s already established a reputation.)

The rhythm finally changes for “Green Book”, but the subject is only too rote, this time exploring newer, high-tech ways to exploit women. “Pixeleen” is somewhat related, only this time Fagen is drooling over the teenage superhero vixen swashbuckling across the video screen. The cumulative effect thus far makes his bellyaching about the high-maintenance character in “Lunch With Gina” less than sympathetic. The title track echoes the opener, except that it’s more literal about a company going out of business. True to form, the narrator hopes for a tryst with an office mate, and further hopes a coworker will film it.

Musically, the album is well played and impeccably produced. As with its elder brother, Everything Must Go will please anyone willing to overlook its shortcomings. However, we can’t, and it doesn’t.

Steely Dan Everything Must Go (2003)—2