At first listen, this sounds like an extension of Donald Fagen's solo albums ("The Nightfly" being the better of those two), but there is a bit more here than meets the ear initially. One has to listen more than once to get the feel.  If I can recall (at it has indeed been a long time, how MY life has changed as well) back to records such as "The Royal Scam", it wasn't immediately that I came to enjoy them either.