CD Review - Circus Money

If you’re reading this review, you probably know the back story on Walter Becker and this album: one half of Steely Dan, 14 years since last solo release, reggae influences, etc., etc., etc. So with that out of the way, let’s talk about Circus Money. First of all, Steely Dan is my favorite group and although I’m not particularly fond of Becker’s first solo, 11 Tracks of Whack, I was looking forward to the release of this album. My first (attempted) listen was conducted in what I thought were optimal conditions: dimmed lighting, Dolby ProLogic II, a refreshing beverage, and a bit of herbal enhancement. The first couple of tracks didn’t do much for me and then “Bob Is Not Your Uncle Anymore” came on and seemed to get things going. I made it a couple of more tracks before my mind started to wonder and turned it off in favor of watching a couple of episodes of Magnum P.I. and didn’t listen to it again for a few weeks.

Now I’ll be the first to admit that my attention span is about the size of a gnat these days but I am still more than capable of maintaining focus when my mind is being engaged. My music purchases have decreased significantly over the past few years simply because more and more when I listen to the things I’m interested in online, I find I’m not moved and/or motivated enough to listen to them ever again - this is not yet another statement on the quality (or lack thereof) of music being released today, if anything, it’s a testament to my lack of attention span/low-level depression/general apathy that demands I be grabbed from the first second and entertained with no lulls for a reasonable amount of time. At any rate, if I had not purchased Circus Money presale via Becker’s site, this album would’ve fallen into that pile.

So after a few weeks of collecting dust on top of my receiver and wanting for some new music to listen to on the nation’s worst public transportation system, I added the album to my mp3 player and gave it a few more listens. First things first, Becker’s voice. It is what it is and in all honesty that has to be accepted right off the bat if you’re going to embark on this mission in any meaningful way but that doesn’t mean that it still doesn’t drag some of the tunes into monotony. For me, the songs fall into one of three categories: solid; good verses, bad choruses; ehs. The solids are: “Bob Is Not Your Uncle Anymore”, “Do You Remember The Name”, “God’s Eye View”, "Somebody's Saturday Night" and my personal favorite, “Darkling Down.” The good verses, bad choruses are: “Paging Audrey” and “Selfish Gene”. The rest are ehs. In short, I bought a really solid EP at an LP price. What’s interesting is that I was a bit dubious when I read about the reggae influences and the songs where those are the strongest ended up being the ones I liked the most.

Much as been debated/speculated about who writes what in the Donald Fagen-Walter Becker partnership and I think their solo offerings make it very clear. Fagen brings the heavily-layered production and slightly less sarcastic, more straight-forward lyrics, whereas Becker brings the straight-forward music and more oblique lyrics. The Nightfly notwithstanding, Fagen’s and Becker’s solo outings leave a bit to be desired although being a production geek, even a less-than-stellar Fagen tune holds some value to me, especially in a 5.1 format. That’s not to say that Circus Money is not a great sounding album, in fact, I think Becker’s bass playing is as good as it’s ever been, it’s just that there isn’t as much going on in the tunes to interest me in and of themselves when the lyrics/melodies don’t.

It could be argued that it’s not fair to judge Circus Money in comparison to Steely Dan or Donald Fagen albums, but it’s impossible for me not to. Becker and Fagen created such a unique style and when you factor in that it’s been over 35 years in the making, you can’t help but associate one without the other(s). At the end of the day, it’s interesting as a fan to hear where Becker is coming from when left to his own devices and in 14 years when he puts out this third disc, I’ll buy it.