Everything Must Go (Steely Dan album)

Everything Must Go is the ninth studio album by American rock group Steely Dan. It was released on June 10, 2003, by Reprise Records. It was the band's second album following their 20-year studio hiatus spanning 1980 through 2000, when they released Two Against Nature. Everything Must Go is the band's most recent studio album and their last with founding member Walter Becker before his death in 2017.

Background
"Godwhacker" developed from a lyric Fagen wrote a few days after his mother died of Alzheimer's. "It's about an elite squad of assassins whose sole assignment is to find a way into heaven and take out God", he later explained. "If the deity actually existed, what sane person wouldn't consider this to be justifiable homicide?"

Critical
Upon its release, Everything Must Go received generally favorable reviews from music critics. During a concert at Los Angeles' Greek Theatre on July 8, 2011, Donald Fagen said that he felt the album was "underrated".

Commercial
Everything Must Go is the only Steely Dan album not to achieve a Gold certification from the Recording Industry Association of America.

Legacy
The album is frequently placed last on ranked lists of Steely Dan's albums, with Stereogum music writer Zach Schonfeld writing in 2020 that the album "seems to exist largely to make it easy for fans to identify the bottom rung in their Steely Dan album ranking". Writers for Stereogum, Classic Rock, and Louder each placed the album in ninth place (last place) when ranking Steely Dan's discography from worst to best.

Releases
Everything Must Go was also released as a DVD-audio disc with a multi-channel mix. And now an SACD newly remastered from the original analog tape by Bernie Grundman direct to DSD. A special two-disc edition of Everything Must Go (one CD, one DVD) was released. The DVD, 'Steely Dan Confessions', follows Becker and Fagen touring Las Vegas after hours in a taxi promoting the album in a special version of the cult HBO cable show Taxicab Confessions, hosted by cabbie Rita.

Track listing
All songs written by Walter Becker and Donald Fagen.

Steely Dan

 * Donald Fagen – lead vocals (all tracks except 5), organ (3, 5–7), synthesizer (5), piano (3), Hohner Clavinet (9), Fender Rhodes (1, 2, 5–7, 9) & Wurlitzer (1, 4, 8), solo synth (4, 6, 8), percussion (6, 9)
 * Walter Becker – bass (all tracks), solo guitar (1–4, 6), lead vocals (5), percussion (9)

Additional musicians

 * Ted Baker – piano (1–3, 6, 9), Fender Rhodes (8), Wurlitzer (5)
 * Bill Charlap – piano (7), Fender Rhodes (4)
 * Jon Herington – guitar (all tracks)
 * Hugh McCracken – guitar (all tracks)
 * Keith Carlock – drums (all tracks)
 * Gordon Gottlieb – percussion (2, 3, 5, 7, 8)
 * Ken Hitchcock – clarinet (7)
 * Walt Weiskopf – alto saxophone (1), tenor saxophone (2, 5, 7, 9)
 * Chris Potter – tenor saxophone (8)
 * Roger Rosenberg – baritone saxophone (1, 7)
 * Tony Kadleck – trumpet (1)
 * Michael Leonhart – trumpet (2, 5, 7, 8)
 * Jim Pugh – trombone (1, 7)
 * Tawatha Agee – background vocals (4, 5, 9)
 * Ada Dyer – background vocals (5)
 * Michael Harvey – background vocals (5, 7, 8)
 * Carolyn Leonhart – background vocals (2, 3, 5, 6), featured background vocal (7)
 * Cindy Mizelle – background vocals (1, 6)
 * Catherine Russell – background vocals (1, 4, 5, 6)
 * Brenda White-King – background vocals (9)

Production

 * Producers: Walter Becker, Donald Fagen
 * Engineers: Tom Doherty, Roger Nichols, Dave Russell, Elliot Scheiner
 * Assistant engineers: Suzy Barrows, Tom Doherty, Steve Mazur, Keith Nelson, Todd Parker, Matt Scheiner
 * Mixing: Elliot Scheiner
 * Mixing assistant: Joe Peccerillo
 * Mastering: Darcy Proper
 * Editing: Larry Alexander
 * Arrangers: Walter Becker, Donald Fagen
 * Horn arrangements: Donald Fagen
 * Technician: Sam Berd
 * Drum technician: Art Smith
 * Piano tuner: Sam Berd