Walter Becker
Circus Money
(5 Over 12 Records, 2008)

When Walter Becker’s first solo record, 11 Tracks of Whack, was released 14 years ago, it was a signifier of great things to come. While Whack was met with mixed reviews, the project was part of the rekindling of Steely Dan, which had been revived in 1993 after 12 years of dormancy, and has since yielded two albums, a handful of Grammys, honorary doctorates, and countless tours.

There are two serious differences between this record and earlier Becker efforts. With Circus Money, Becker steps away from the jazz-rock and extrapolated blues terrain of Steely Dan to indulge in a fascination with reggae that was only hinted at by a few tracks from the Becker/Fagen catalogue (“Haitian Divorce”, “Babylon Sisters”, and the unreleased “The Second Arrangement”), and Becker’s “My Waterloo” (Whack) and “Strength of Character” (a song he produced for China Crisis). This record also circumnavigates the pitfalls of synthetic keys and rhythms that undermined—and badly dated—some very solid songwriting on 11 Tracks of Whack and the coeval Becker-produced outing from Donald Fagen, Kamakiriad.

The raw pulse of this album is driven by Becker himself, who makes an exciting return to the rhythm section in his old niche as bassist, and drummer Keith Carlock, a young maniac whose precision and creativity has earned him a spot on all recent Steely Dan configurations. Another recent fixture, Jon Herington, returns on guitar, but does not get nearly as much facetime as keyboardist Ted Baker, who must have learned Fagen’s Fender Rhodes presets while touring with the band. Jim Beard fills out the texture with funky clav and calliope, and Chris Potter’s tenor sax work sounds, at times, like that of his old bandmate, Cornelius Bumpus, who, up until his death in 2004, was another highly-skilled Steely Dan sideman. In the producer’s seat is Larry Klein, who himself played bass for Freddie Hubbard, which accounts for the thick, bass-heavy vibe of this record.

The presence of back-up vocals is a mixed blessing. While they heighten the swagger of “God’s Eye View” to proportions of the didactic “Kilo” chorus from Ghostface Killah’s song of the same name, they edge a couple numbers—“Door Number Two” and “Three-Picture Deal”—perilously close to the doldrums of adult contemporary (to be fair, the elated gospel chorus on “Three-Picture Deal” may just be too incongruous to the verse’s understated vamp). However, for his part, Becker’s lead vocals are matured and much more confident than on Whack, playing up strong suits while sounding assured of the character in its shortcomings.

The fiercely lyrical Becker doesn’t let up for a second with tales of degradation, loss, and dubious love. Those familiar with the Steely Dan oeuvre will have no trouble finding compassion with the losers on this set. In “Downtown Canon”, a young lover “Pack[s] up the Dylan and the Man Ray and the Joyce” after the cohabitant of his Greene Street loft falls for a “half-crazed painter fool in some damn bar.” The failed in-breeder “Cousin Dupree” from Steely Dan’s Two Against Nature is reincarnated as the less-humorous, albeit successful, Bob, in “Bob Is not Your Uncle Anymore.” Then there’s “Darkling Down,” who manages to get banned from an Inglewood bar and fall down on the “balls of his ass.”

Throughout the annals of Steely Dan narratives there are characters whose names are just metonyms, little suggestive symbols: There’s 19, from “Hey 19”, and eponymous losers like “Deacon Blues”, “Midnite Cruiser” (a “gentleman loser”), and “Buzz”, from “Through With Buzz”, who seems to be as much of a drug as he is a man. Many of the protagonists on this record are treated similarly. Becker tells of “Selfish Gene”, a deep-pocketed pun-of-a-man who goes trolling an LA “Amateur Night” for a young playdate, and “Somebody’s Saturday Night”, a title that refers to a girl (or any girl) who may head home with “Somebody.” Likewise, in “Do You Remember the Name”, we hear the cryptic conclusion, “The name of the man who tried hard / ‘Immemorious’ was his name-o.”

While Becker introduces some completely new rhythms to the Steely Dan canon—venturing into dub territory on “Bob Is not Your Uncle Anymore” and “Do You Remember the Name” and employing what my East Coast rhythm consultant describes as a “Steve Gadd-like swampy funk shuffle—definitely New Orleans” on “Circus Money”—the record has all the texture you would expect from a Steely Dan record, even without Fagen anywhere nearby. Simply put, the silent partner of Steely Dan has managed to put out a solo offering that rivals the band’s recent work, and sounds completely in line with it, even while straying from the foolproof Steely Dan formula.

Listen: Various Tracks [at walterbecker.com]

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