 List Price: $14.98
Lowest Price: $9.98 
Product Description: It's been 14 years since Steely Dan co-founder Walter Becker's last (and first) solo album was released. Now, at long last, the wait is finally over for the second. Circus Money finds Becker's sardonic sensibility completely intact and each of the album's songs, inflected with jazz, reggae, and rock phrasing, is a masterpiece of musical understatement and lyrical nuance. Customer Reviews: Rating: 
Date: 2008-07-09
I'm like a kid at the circus
This is a great release by Walter Becker. The more I listen the more I love it. Clever lyrics dig into your head and really make you think volumes from perfectly simply chosen words. Great music that is sturdy and sophisticated. Lots of great musical flourishes. Rating: 
Date: 2008-07-04
Thanks Amazon for the audio samples!!!
Think I just saved a few $$....
I am a really big fan of Steely Dan but I think Becker should only be singing in his shower!
I don't mind reggae but not this... 11 Tracks of Whack was a much better effort. Wish he had teamed up with Fagen and release another SD album instead. Rating: 
Date: 2008-07-03
Circus Money well spent
I sure hope to God that serious musicians never pay much mind to their critics, because if they did, they might never evolve as artists. Does anyone remember how incredibly different Fagen's Nightfly was? Fagen gambled and it paid off. Yeah, I guess he could have put out "Aja II" or "Gaucho Rides Again" but why? Every great artist has to keep growing, and Becker does so quite nicely here. Sometimes it's subtle, sometimes it's not, but this is no album to scoff at. This is where Becker (and Larry Klein) is in 2008, and it won't please everyone, but you can never please everyone.
Rating:
Date: 2008-06-30
a semi-hypnotic crystalline tropane alkaloid type
I picked up this CD at a recent SD concert in NYC. By the third listen I was hooked, lots of nuance and a good dose of mystery lyrics. As in another review, I noted a frequent use of reggae rhythm, but for me it flows craftfully with the other components.
Sax work flows like mercury in summer. Bass and chord changes are creative and solid.
Only weak point (for me) is the 12th cut which hammers the "1-2-3 Picture Deal theme" mercilessly, could have gone to the cutting room floor in favor of some other concept.
Walter and Co - thanks so much for this amazing work! Rating:
Date: 2008-06-28
Tired Guitar Licks, Dreary Voice, Reggae Monotony
Rated one star, only because there's no "dog" designation for really bad records.
Gee, what a colossal disappointment. In the wild and wacky arena of music distribution these days, Steely Dan records or those of its patriarchs, Fagen and Becker, are greatly anticipated by moi. Becker's first solo entry, 11 Tracks of Whack (actually 12 tunes, plus another two only on the Japanese release) was unique and distinctly un-Steely like, including the questionable debut of Bex singing...but far more memorable--inventive and varied--than this "Circus Money" thingy. At some point in the midst of recording (or as late as sequencing) this new record, I wonder if Mr. B got to thinking: "Houston, we have a problem--too much of my white man reggae." It's all kinda surreal (sorry, I hate that word, but it's the only relatable word to this type of weirdness): a white guy who sounds like Morgan Freeman trying to sing, foisting these faux reggae tunes on an adoring audience that will buy anything Steely Dan. The lyrics are smugly cutesy and humorous, but the music is monotonous, and without much in the way of the hooks that were so appealing on "Tracks of Whack." Who can deny the catchiness of "no fooling, it's a f***ked up world, be cool my little junkie girl." Even my wife, a musical heathen, can relate. I personally love the chorus on "Hat Too Flat." Lots of great stuff there.
Adding to my anguish is the ill-advised appearance of Walt again as lead guitarist, an annoying trend on those Steely Dan albums since their "regrouping" (other than choosing to live 6000 miles apart, did they ever really break up?). Becker is just an OK guitarist, and his soloing style that I call "stabbing notes," is really grating. You'll hear Wally playing the same or similar runs throughout the SD repertoire. This brings about an editorial comment: Fagen and Becker need to return to the glory of "Aja" days: Guys, stop using the same workman session guys (Keith Carlock, Jon Herrington, Ted Baker) and invite back some of those noted giants you used on your seminal record. I know it's contractually cheaper to use the same guys in the studio and on the road, but the pristinely dull character of the studio records is frustrating to this fan. Either that, or let your low paid contract players stretch out a little bit. For example, I noticed Keith Carlock gets a little more latitude to show his stuff in live performance (last round of Fagen with "Morph" and with SD on the "Everything Must Go" tour), but on the records, he is merely relegated to playing drum machine (where's Wendal, if this is all we're going to get?).
Bottom line: save your dinero; this is the kind of record you play once and immediately slug it into CD collection, forgetting it forever. Sorry Walter...I still love you. |
