Steely Dan – Two Against Nature

Is this page bugged? I'm seeing loads of reviews meant to be on the page for the 2000 vinyl pressing. This is the CD release...

Yes, the 45rpm is described as: "Recorded to a multi-track analog tape, mixed to 24/96 and mastered and cut by Scott Hull at Masterdisk." It sounds as if the original mix was done to 24/96, which would not be surprising, since there was no analog release in 2000. If so, then the RSD vinyl is probably the same.

I do have both so am intending to do a comparison (and to get the 45rpm release up here tonight, unless someone beats me to it).

45 RPM version available for pre-order now. Also EVERYTHING MUST GO 45 rpm.
https://store.acousticsounds.com/d/162280/Steely_Dan-Two_Against_Nature-45_RPM_Vinyl_Record

"FIRST TIME ON VINYL" applies only to the 180g 2LP version as there was a vinyl release circa 2000, which arguably is considered a bootleg. Having said that, this IS the version to have IF you have a turntable, else you will have to settle for the DVD-A. Everything else can be disregarded. The other comments already outline the underlying quality of this release w.r.t. sound and manufacture.
Scott Hull has done a good mastering job here, and the 9 tracks are nicely spread over 3 sides with adequate groove width. I also found the sound of Walter Becker's guitar licks particularly well presented in the lush soundscape without being overly prominent. I'm confident this would be the choice version of Donald and Walter for distribution to the massive audience they have created throughout the years. (Un)fortunately it took 20 years for the emergence of a landmark album, but better late than never :-))

Always wanted the original vinyl. insane price.The only steely dan I didn't have in vinyl. I glad they reissue it for RSD. YES lots of complaining about the price. the beatles white mono box? If you want one get it now and stop complaining.

I agree with all the other reviews. Dead quiet and wonderful pressing. Beautiful mastering and a large, airy soundstage.

BUT: Don't laugh at me... I don't understand how the etching "works." Is it supposed to do anything spinning on the platter like the laser hologram on 2112 or is just supposed to look "neat"?

A pending vinyl reissue was mentioned on Masterdisk's Instagram page last September... https://www.instagram.com/p/B2C5ksQBZbG

A double vinyl set of "Two against Nature" would be fantastic for best audio results on 52 minutes runtime. Hopefully the existing analogue master mixes, that Walter Becker once mentioned, will be released for the first time very soon.

I’m at a difficult juncture here with Steely Dan, standing solidly behind my review of Everything Must Go, yet only so far. In the history of Steely Dan there were four distinct phases. Phase One encomed the early more raw and danceable albums that were in so many people’s collections, then came Phase Two with the bewildering Royal Scam with its uninvitingly dark and foreboding cover imagine, that for me, signaled a storm, and if not a storm, then certainly a change was on the horizon. That change was never more evident a year later with the release of Aja, and Phase Three, where The Dan stepped into a world that would become ever more sanitized, clean, flawless, and perhaps a mere reflection of life, rather than material that suggested they were creating songs that were of and about their lives, and that was their adventure into the realm of Gaucho.

All of this is completely understandable considering that both Fagen and Becker were dealing with their respective drug addictions, the tragic loss of friends and loved ones, court battles, and then Walter Becker up and moved not only to a different State, but to a State that was an island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean … which certainly seemed to indicate a parting of the ways. That being said, in the twenty three years between the release of Gaucho and Two Against Nature, came Phase Four, which also included Everything Must Go. While musically sound and produced exceeding well, the stories that unfold here [and on Everything Must Go,] were more personally inner-reflective, coming across as if told through the eyes of some third party, laced with little joy, even though the music bounced, the stories held within the lyrics were intrinsically dark, demanding, standing as embarrassing confessions overhead from an occupied confessional booth, from which there would be no absolution.

With that in mind, it would be easy to consider the numbers found here to be indulgent, though perhaps both Fagen and Becker felt the need for a sort of clemency and dispensation, not so much from their fans, but from each other and those who lay wasted in their wake. Two Against Nature, as with Everything Must Go, are both very serious albums, delivered by two men who’ve finally paid their dues, understanding that their major dude hipsterism was an attribute of those who where truly not hip, those who had not been tested by fire, and only by shaking that shroud could they come face to face with their true nature, their inner spirits, spirits that actually had truths to tell from lives filled with amazing heights, depths, and understanding life affirming affiliations that meant they were not above the fray, but very much a part of it.

Regardless, Steely Dan have not stepped out of their impressionistic world, unwinding stories of people who’ve done and are doing things that they certainly shouldn’t have been doing in the first place. To that end, Two Against Nature is a headlong jump down the rabbit hole, visioned with stunning musical clarity, yet with a degree of elliptical cerebral-ism that’s non-circular, meaning again, that while Two Against Nature is another concoction of limitless session players, their next album Everything Must Go will turn the tables, being overtly all about what the core of Steely Dan can do on their own. And therein lies the smile, as Fagen washes his keyboards with an enchanting variety of R&B and jazz stylings, standing side by side with Becker and his polished and fluid guitar perfection, proving that when push comes to shove, Steely Dan still have the chops to make sound great music, even if the twosome still stroll the halls of squeaky clean digital recording techniques.

There are those who will insist, and I find it hard to argue with them, that music is more than craft and technique, that the seams of Steely Dan are hidden, that their instrumentation has been overly digitally lacquered, and it’s all been buffed to a gloss so high that there is little room for reflection on the twenty some years since Gaucho and even longer since their last actual rock n’ roll record. It’s also interesting to consider that during the time of their last actual rock n’ roll record The Royal Scam, there was still a radio friendly formate, though now, even college and Public Radio stations have a much more regimented procedure that seeks to give the listeners what they want all the time, spoon-feeding them only what they already know and are comfortable with, rather than introducing them to something new, something that just might make a difference in their shallow work-a-day lives, where these 1972 “Reelin’ In The Years” kids are now often grandparents, and they just don’t wanna be challenged anymore … after all, the air cooled leather seats of their bluetooth SUV’s are too comfortable to even consider rolling down the windows and letting some fresh air in.

Me [?] … I’m still out here listening.

*** The Fun Facts: Two Against Nature is an interesting album jacket, just shadows on the landscape, with the idea of Fagen and Becker being two who were standing 'unnaturally or immorally' sonically going against nature. Though, as with all things related to Steely Dan, photographer Michael Northrop, commenting on the images used for Two Against Nature, said, “I like to take funny pictures of people and things that have a little mystery to them. I want to make you ask questions. I took the photographs back in 1967 (again the date 1967 shows up, as it did in the song "Hey Nineteen' from the Gaucho album), they’re of my first wife. She was an incredible muse for me for ten wonderful and difficult years. I would love to do a book on my images of her. These deer (on the inside of the album’s booklet) are ornaments on a huge lawn of a small mansion in the country, alongside a small river in southeastern Ohio. At the time, I had a curiosity about transparent, blurred, distorted subjects. They give life to a static image, with a little mystery. The deer look animated in response to the blurred figure. I chose that angle so their black soulless eyes are looking into the camera. Much can be said for the remaining photographs for the album, all from that period in time, and no, those shadows on the front cover are not of Walter Becker or Donald Fagen.”

Review by Jenell Kesler

Whilst Walter Becker states the group did not sanction a vinyl release, and says this German pressing is a 'bootleg', the fact is that anyone who worked/works in the record industry will tell you artists rarely have complete control over everything they do across all territories (different sleeves, different tracks, different promos, different single/B-side releases), and what seems to have happened here is:

1. A small vinyl pressing run was made in shortly after the CD was issued. These were as legitimately distributed and sold as any other album from a major label. This album could be bought in European record stores, online at stores such as Diverse Vinyl, and copies even made their way to USA stores.

2. The barcode was used to order copies by stores, they were sent to stores by the label distributor - hardly a 'bootleg' - unless Walter Becker is claiming his own record label in Europe bootlegged his at the time new album release. Be interesting to know, from Becker or Fagen, if their royalty statements some six months later included sales from vinyl in the EU - if not, then their label did rip them off.

3. The vinyl looks, and sounds, just like their next album Everything Must Go - clearly a digital recording EQ'd up then released on regular weight vinyl. Some people prefer the CD sound, some the vinyl, but there's no way that Two Against Nature is a 'bootleg' as we known them. For starters, it sounds too 'good'. In fact it sounds far better than more recent 'CD on vinyl' releases by many artists - official or otherwise.

4. The album is clearly well recorded, albeit in that modern digital, crisp, no bottom end way. The vinyl pressing has clearly been mastered from a decent source, and what is a real oddity, because it should sound dreadful, it's groove-crammed with over 20 minutes per side, yet still has a decent sound throughout when played on a top quality turntable/system.

5. A comparison test of the vinyl vs the CD on Rega LP/CD + Naim systems, made it clear that the vinyl sounds far more enjoyable to listen to than the CD, which is tiring and somewhat 'shiny sounding' after a while. Perhaps the vinyl warms it up a bit, perhaps the fellow (bootlegger or fan-mastering engineer) that cut the laquer the disc is pressed from cared enough about the music enough to do a quality job - I guess we'll never know.

6. Everything Must Go, despite being an offical vinyl release, really does not sound any better/different mastering-wise than Two Against Nature - if this is the sound on vinyl from the next LP Dan released that is sanctioned by the band, I really can't hear any differences to indicate Two Against Nature is inferior audio in any way - they really do sound similar in mastering technique.

7. There's more to the story behind the vinyl of Two Against Nature than meets the eye - where was it pressed, who cut and mastered it? It has a matrix on the run-outs, the sleeve has quality printing, not like these blown-up CD sleeves that even the otherwise excellent Play 33 Korean guys are using for their jazz on vinyl releases. Anyone who knows more about this vinyl please do share.

8. And if, as Becker states, they do have an analogue master they can use for a vinyl release, then someone should whisper in his ear that NOW IS THE TIME, everything's being reissued on vinyl these days and Dan fans would happily pay for a quality vinyl issue of this album - as did Pink Floyd Fans when they finally issued The Division Bell in full on decent double vinyl.

9. Now, who are we going to get to issue Joni Mitchell's glorious Travelogue album on vinyl?