Steely Dan where oh where have you been all my 18 years on this earth? These last two weeks or so I've delved in to the Steely Dan collection, and I ain't finished yet... my god, it just keeps getting better and better... I bought Aja first, as it is their most famous one, and I was immediately hooked... Gaucho followed, and that was a revelation for me as well... both albums had quickly become my two favorite albums, and it was hard to pick a better one... then yesterday I bought this one... I heard the song Jack of Speed which I loved, and I heard parts of live versions of a couple of the other ones before I bought it, and man, this is one awesome album... Steely Dan can't go wrong... Gaslighting Abbie is a very funky number with great horn and clarinet flourishes throughout, but the highlight of it is the bass clarinet solo... yup yup, that's right, a bass clarinet, and it fits perfectly... the next two songs What a Shame about Me, and the title track are the two weakest tracks on the album, but Janie Runaway straight through to West of Hollywood is perfect... Janie Runaway is a kinda laid back funky little number which is very very good... Almost Gothic is awesome, with a great little muted horn solo... Jack of Speed is almost like the Peg of this album, it's the most radio friendly of the songs, but still, it is very much a part of the album, and is one of the strongest songs... Negative Girl is probably my favorite right now, with it's beautiful melody, and I love that, ummm, isn't that a xylophone solo in there? It's called vibes in the liner notes, anyways it's awesome... oh, and West of Hollywood has a 4 minute sax solo, which is TOTALLY awesome... this is one spectacular album... it's amazing to me how Steely Dan has actually been popular on radio and stuff all these years... but I'm glad, cause it's nice to hear good music on the radio... I questioned why these guys won the grammy awards back in february or whenever it was, but that was before I had any experience with their music... now I realize that it was the right decision... anyways, I babble... the bottom line is that this album is one of the best to come out in, well, since Guacho was released... so that would be like 20 years... it's less accessable then Aja and Guacho, but all that means is that you have to listen to it a few times... once you get into it, it's very rewarding... check it out, you won't be dissappointed!!!!...