The Katy Lied poll

'Rose Darling' is one of my favourite songs on here without a doubt!

pretty crucial "Daddy Don't Live In That New York City No More" being on this album, bc to me this feels like the album signifying some type of glorious move to the west coast, after the much more NYC-ness of the first three albums, then the next three albums are all dissolute tales of the L.A. life. one could argue or idk fantasize even, that Royal Scam is the Becker perspective and life, Aja is the Fagen, and Gaucho is where they come back together for their final downfall. if we regard, as i sometimes do, the stories told by Steely Dan to be these increasingly noirish fables: Becker's version of noir is the more cynical, Fagen's the more romantic and longing, and then they meet up again when it all falls apart, their hands closing over empty air where what they were striving for once was.

The vocal effect on that one is sweet

That song's another good example of what I find sad about their albums (and also why they work even better as albums rather than sliced up into individual songs). They're like one of those movies about glamorous despair, where the characters seem to be living it up in hedonistic fashion. The movie itself - from the style to the rhythm to the dialogue - will tap into that, but while it can be viscerally engaging on the surface, it's tempered by the realization that this is a sad individual who's engaging in self-destruction, like a slow act of suicide. That feeling's all over Katy Lied and it makes perfect sense why it eventually leads to "Any World (That I'm Welcome To)."

To be clear, I think their albums have a hilariously dark sense of humor too - they're a lot of things.

I think "soon it will BE too laaAAte" is prob Donald's creepiest line delivery

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPcLXqxGFMk

gotta bring up this record at any available opportunity, just gorgeous stuff, and the stripped down arrangements really highlight what weirdo geniuses Don and Walt were

This record is the last to include a lot of their weirder impulses - they may have seen gone on to see them as immaturities or awkward gestures. Things like the sax that fades in and out of "Everyone's Gone to the Movies", the self-consciously arty overture to "Your Gold Teeth II", or the oblique ending to "Throw Back the Little Ones" (or even ending the record on such a quizzical song). What they gained in groove wasn't quite a fair trade-off for what they lost or abandoned.
I was dismayed to realize today that the first verse of "Everyone's Gone to the Movies" rhymes "fun" with "fun", though.

realized that Chain Lightning sounds like a dry run for a lot of what Fagen would explore on The Nightfly.

i love this album, been jamming it heavily lately. but i don't think they lost much over the next three albums, i kinda accept that they were constantly shifting over the course of the '72-'80 run and never remained in one place for too long. despite the occasional melodic callbacks to previous songs on later albums they all sound so different, and tell such different tales.

their best imo

Yeah, this definitely feels like it could be their best. Countdown, Pretzel Logic and Katy Lied are like the holy trinity of Steely Dan albums for me, and they each have something I really love that distinguishes it from the others. The way Pretzel Logic gets even stranger and broader eclecticism of Countdown makes a great case for either of them being their best as well.

*the broader