Two Against Nature (studio album) by Steely Dan

From spigelwii 12/06/2023 19:47

Two Against Nature is actually a remarkably consistent Steely Dan record: It SOUNDS like Steely Dan, it has songs by Becker and Fagen, it has immaculate playing and occasional immaculate grooves, but in the end...this all feels very hollow and in service of a band that seems to be merely attempting to continue to exist 20 years after its most recent record, Gaucho. Even some of the best songs like Two Against Nature and Jack of Speed are great grooves searching for something memorable to latch onto. The one exception to the album's general lack of definition is the excellent Cousin Dupree, which is both very catchy AND darkly comedic: two qualities that Steely Dan have always been able to pull off. The rest of the songs range from "okay" to "just okay". There's not really a bad one here, but there's only one really good one...a very strange problem for SD to have.

Twenty plus years later, and over forty years after Gaucho, Two Against Nature comes across as almost wholly unnecessary, the least offensive and least interesting album, residing in the valley of a career full of monumental peaks. In a vacuum, I don't hate it at all (and really you could say I actually LIKE it), but I don't really feel much about it at all in the context of everything else they've done...which is maybe the most damning statement of all when it comes to Steely Dan.

From Larcx13 02/25/2023 05:47

This music is great, as is usual from Steely Dan. If you can get past the fact that your favorite artist didnt win an award... this is quite enjoyable.

This actually made me recoil in horror and I couldn't turn it off soon enough. If you're curious about this one, let me save you the time - reed thin blues guitar, simpering drum beats and some 70s soft rock organ. I have to assume it's the same all the way through.

This won over Kid A and The Marshall Mathers LP why again?

From Sandrof1969 02/21/2018 18:51

Del ritorno degli Steely Dan nel 2000 con un nuovo album da studio vent'anni dopo "Gaucho" penso non importasse quasi a nessuno. Il risultato fu invece almeno accettabile e a tratti pure di più, anche se gli Steely Dan del 2000 avevano in comune con quelli degli anni settanta la raffinatezza ma non la stessa creatività e soprattutto non lo stesso ardore.

A fine comeback record from Steely Dan. I believe it is superior to Gaucho, which was inconsistent. And like Gaucho, it sounds fantastic in 5.1.

I really enjoyed this album. Great stuff.

This is a very good album for the most par - much better than everything must go which I can't listen to

"Two Against Nature" was Steely Dan's comeback album in 2000 after almost twenty year break since "Gaucho".

The album has received much praise, and it is of course nice to hear new material from the group. Perhaps the album was, with the enthusiasm that the group recorded again, somewhat overestimated. Instrumentally and lyrically it has the level of the golden past; but many of the songs' melodic profiles are somewhat loose and some of them also seem a bit lengthy.

Of course there are exceptions to this. "Almost Gothic" and partly also "What a Shame About Me" have the familiar Steely Dan high standards.

The album's successor Everything Must Go "is in my estimation much more successful.