Cocaine Reggae

The other day I posted this question on a social networking site:

Does liking the new Walter Becker album make me a bad person?

I'm only partly joking when I ask that...Becker, best known as one-half of the joint-chamber known as Steely Dan, has a new disk out called Circus Money. Of course, the Dan made a career (and hopefully a fortune) in welding a sort of wry, after-hours cynicism with a sophisticated harmonic palette. Theirs wasn't really a Randy Newman-style pop misanthropy -- it seemed more first person, in the sense that Newman's narratives play out as grand fiction, whereas Fagen/Becker's writing seemed more like reports from the frontline of depraved boredom.

Becker always intrigued me, as he was something of a silent partner in Steely Dan. He co-wrote everything, but rarely sang, and while he contributed much in the way of guitar and bass, a lot of the more heralded bits of their oeuvre came courtesy of hired guns (like "Skunk" Baxter on "My Old School" or Chuck Rainey's bass lines on Aja). Becker stepped forth with a solo album in 1994, which was intriguing but a bit gauzy...it had a smoke-filled quality that I couldn't quite reconcile, despite some strong songs and the surprising soulfulness of Becker's singing.

Circus Money is different. It's very sparse -- although slickly executed and immaculately produced, the tracks feel pared to the bone. The predominate feel is reggae...but to call describe it as "really relaxed reggae rhythms" as Stephen Thomas Erlewine does in his remarkably uninsightful allmusic.com review, is to miss the point entirely. This is a tight, profoundly uncomfortable sort of reggae...if most reggae is pot fueled and mellow, this is dry, flaky, cocaine reggae. It reminds me of the way your nose feels once it finally stops bleeding.

It's a record worth hearing...Becker's bass playing is tremendous -- he knows his reggae shit, but isn't afraid to stray from the formula. The chord progressions are typically ingenious, with quirky modulations all over the place. More than once the band will lock into a one-chord groove over which a keyboard will layer a second chord progression, creating a great sense of tension. Lyrically Becker is in fine mettle, dashing off disgusting scenarios populated by loathsome characters, wrapped in desperation. I think my favorite may be "Darkling Down," which wraps up with this little run:

Who will feast on this buzzard's banquet?
Who will render my heroic bust?
Who will choke on my lachrymose musings?
Who will eat my zero dust?
Who will wear this puke-streaked tunic?
Who shall gorge on this cup of spleen?
Who will sing about the good bad and ugly
And all and everything in between?

I believe that this disk is the first recorded work produced by Becker without the involvement of Donald Fagen...maybe that's significant, maybe it's not. But it is an intriguing project...not the kind of stuff I usually listen to, but maybe that's why I'm listening to it so much.