User:Curvebender/sandbox

astronauts & heretics

allmusic 3/5 http://www.allmusic.com/album/astronauts-amp-heretics-mw0000616280

Entertainment Weekly (11/6/92, p. 67) - "... his best album yet... this catchy little jewel has vision to spare... " - Rating: A-

Billboard November 14 1992, p.55

map of the floating city allmusic 2.5/5 http://www.allmusic.com/album/a-map-of-the-floating-city-mw0002223754

http://www.anydecentmusic.com/review/3871/Thomas-Dolby-A-Map-Of-The-Floating-City.aspx http://www.nme.com/reviews/thomas-dolby/12447

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=BCUEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA65&dq=gary+katz+1982+eye+to+eye&hl=en&sa=X&ei=POikUMaaNqGH0AWXrYCYDg&ved=0CEIQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=gary%20katz%201982%20eye%20to%20eye&f=false

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=YCQEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PT66&dq=gary+katz+1982+eye+to+eye&hl=en&sa=X&ei=POikUMaaNqGH0AWXrYCYDg&ved=0CDAQ6AEwAQ

http://www.geocities.jp/jeffsstamp/diskfile/efile/eye2ey1a.html

Eye to Eye is the debut album by Eye to Eye, released in 1982 on Warner Bros.. The album was produced by Gary Katz and features musical contributions from many highly regarded sessions musicians.

Lead single "Nice Girls", released in March 1982, reached 37 on the Billboard Top 40. Album only managed 99 in the Billboard Hot 200.

"Kid Congo" is a homage to Kid Congo Powers. The album was reissued on CD in 2004 by Wounded Bird, which also included the Just A Million Dreams album.

Track listing
All songs by Deborah Berg & Julian Marshall


 * 1) "Hunger Pains" – 4:01
 * 2) "Life in Motion" – 4:17
 * 3) "Nice Girls" – 5:11
 * 4) "More Hopeless Knowledge" – 4:09
 * 5) "Progress Ahead" – 3:50
 * 6) "Physical Attraction" – 4:26
 * 7) "Time Flys" – 5:11
 * 8) "On the Mend" – 4:24

Personnel

 * Deborah Berg - vocals
 * Julian Marshall - keyboards
 * Chuck Rainey - bass on 1-5, 7 & 8.
 * Abraham Laboriel - bass on 6
 * Jeff Porcaro - drums on 1-3, 5-7
 * Jim Keltner - drums on 4 and 8
 * Rick Derringer - guitar, solo guitar on 8
 * Ian Underwood - keyboards
 * Elliot Randall - solo guitar on 2, 3, 4 and 6
 * Donald Fagen - solo synthesizer on 8
 * Dean Parks - guitar on 8
 * Starz Vanderlocket - percussion
 * Ruth Underwood - marimba
 * Timothy B. Schmitt - background vocals


 * Stephen George - drums on "Saturn Drive", "American Dreamer", "Wipeout Beat"
 * Mark Kuch - guitar
 * Ric Ocasek - guitar, keyboards
 * Al Jourgensen - keyboards on "Saturn Drive"
 * Greg Hawkes - synthesizer, saxophone on "Wipeout Beat"
 * Michael Zilkha - executive producer

Singles
GAUCHO

The album was given 4½ stars from Rolling Stone's Ariel Swartley, who said of the album: "After years of hibernation in the studio, the metamorphosis that began with The Royal Scam is complete. Steely Dan have perfected the aesthetic of the tease."[24] The New York Times gave Gaucho a positive review,[25] later deeming it the best album of 1980, beating out Talking Heads Remain in Light and Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures.[26] The album also received positive reviews from the Montreal Gazette[27] and PopMatters.

Not all reviews were positive. The second edition of the The Rolling Stone Album Guide, which gave all of Steely Dan's previous releases at least 3 stars (out of 5), gave Gaucho a 1-star rating; critic Dave Marsh called it "the kind of music that passes for jazz in Holiday Inn lounges, with the kind of lyrics that pass for poetry in freshman English classes."[28] Gaucho also received a lukewarm review from the Pittsburgh Press's Pete Bishop.[29] Robert Christgau of the Village Voice gave it a tepid review and rated it B-.

AJA

1. Background 2. Production 3. Reception 4. Legacy 5. Track listing 6. Personnel 7. Production 8. Reissues 9. Charts

- composition

- reception

reviews

sales

ALLMUSIC

Steely Dan hadn't been a real working band since Pretzel Logic, but with Aja, Walter Becker and Donald Fagen's obsession with sonic detail and fascination with composition reached new heights. A coolly textured and immaculately produced collection of sophisticated jazz-rock, Aja has none of the overt cynicism or self-consciously challenging music that distinguished previous Steely Dan records. Instead, it's a measured and textured album, filled with subtle melodies and accomplished, jazzy solos that blend easily into the lush instrumental backdrops. But Aja isn't just about texture, since Becker and Fagen's songs are their most complex and musically rich set of songs -- even the simplest song, the sunny pop of "Peg," has layers of jazzy vocal harmonies. It's complex music delivered with ease, and although the duo's preoccupation with clean sound and self-consciously sophisticated arrangements would eventually lead to a dead end, Aja is a shining example of jazz-rock at its finest.

Rolling Stone (8/30/01, p.128) - 5 stars out of 5 - "...Exquisite...music so technically demanding its creators had to call in A-list session players to realize the sounds they heard in their heads but could not play....AJA [is the]frustration and failure at the heart of the party."

Q (6/00, p.131) - 5 stars out of 5 - "...Sleek, smart, deliciously cynical...Lyrically opaque and using the best musical back-up in the business, this was the Steely Dan album that effectively ring-fenced jazz-funk forevermore....what rich entertainment still."