| Old Steely Dan fans fall into two categories--devotees of suchacerbic early-'70s hits asDo It Again andReeling in the Yearsand those who caught on in 1977, when the gorgeously engineeredAja LPbecame a staple of AOR radio.Two Against Nature (Giant), DonaldFagen and Walter Becker's first studio album in 20 years, is asurprisingly effective effort to satisfy both camps--and bothhalves of the duo's cynical but perfectionist sensibility. With anenergy and commitment unheard of in rock reunions (cf. CSNY), theold partners hire a new set of studio sharpsters and pick up theirjazzy rock where it left off. If anything, the grooves are deeper,the harmonies weirder, the arrangements trickier thanAja's. ButwhereAja was lyrically nonconfrontational, here Fagen's mordantmindset adds bite to music that might seem merely slick otherwise.Main theme, as befits a guy in his fifties: sex as power, with guyin trouble whether victim or victor.
OnLike Blood for Chocolate (MCA), Common, formerly billed asCommon Sense, comes up with some music that's as smart as he is.Always uncommon in his no-bull respect for women and feet-on-the-groundtales from the 'hood, here the Chicago rapper uses jazzmaterials to construct beats that, like everything he does, feelmore fundamental than underground hip hop generally manages. Startrack: the nasty duetA Film Called (Pimp), with MC Lyte matchinghim line for line.
Featuring ex-members of the dB's (Peter Holsapple), the Bangles(Vicki Peterson), and the Dream Syndicate (Mark Walton), NewOrleans's Continental Drifters are loaded with songwriters. But onVermilion (Razor & Tie), the Drifter who putsthe songs across, andwrites good ones herself, is an ex-Cowsill: lead singer SusanCowsill, to be precise.Playboy, Feb. 2000
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