Donald Fagen: Morph The Cat : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Smitten with obscure wordplay and ornate sonics, Donald Fagen hasn't focused on hooks since he reunited with Steely Dan partner Walter Becker in the mid-Nineties. So it's a welcome surprise that his first solo album since 1993's Kamakiriad contains his catchiest, most immediate compositions in decades. This renewed emphasis on melody hasn't ruled out Fagen's reliably wry metaphors: The opening title track describes how Manhattan gets happy when visited by a benign feline phantom, and "Mary Shut the Garden Door" likens Bush's reign to a terrorizing invasion of Lincoln Town Cars. But the tunes are as ripe and fleshy as summer fruit: When Fagen converses with Ray Charles' ghost on "What I Do" and flirts with airport security during "Security Joan," spirited results prove Fagen can still pop amid his jazz.