Donald Fagen's Nightfly - Love it or Hate it?

I think it is great but I find the drum tracks very artificial and tiring...catchy/distinctive at first then boringly monotonous.

If you read up on it......they went back and edited the drum track and replaced every beat with one "ideal" recorded beat....kind of an electronic drum set before they had electronic drum machiness such as became popular by groups like New Order. An interesting sound because each drum hit is so precisely the same even if the timing is still as per the drummer in the group studio sessions. (Syncopation varies but not the sound of each beat)

I totally agree with what's been said. It would be on my Top 10 list for sure. I have read several times that this could have been "AJA II", if Steely Dan had done it.

The MOFI pressing is wonderful and I also have a Japanese pressing that is stunning...

Did you know that this album employed a computer-based audio sampler system known as WENDEL II?
It was pioneered and designed by Roger Nichols. I spoke to him today about the two albums that he engineered - Gaucho & Nightfly. Some interesting stuff!

The WENDEL system is MIDI's pre-runner... Based on a 3 mHz Compal computer with 50kHz/16bit sampling!

Some trivia for you...

DV

A supreme talent, for sure, but his solo stuff sounds best suited for the dentist chair. Far more slick and 'gadgety' than any Steely Dan fare, IMO.