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Steely Dan
Countdown to Ecstasy
Hot Stamper Sold! ($375)
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Product DetailSonic GradeTrack ListingAMG ReviewLinks
Side one (A+ - A++) is clean, clear and musical with lots of energy and excellent presence. Check out the sweet vocals on Bodhisattva and the great sound for the chorus of Razor Boy. I wouldn't mind a little more weight down low... (Stop me if you've heard this one before!)
Side two is even better -- BIG and spacious with lots of separation between the various parts. The chorus of My Old School really opens up and takes the song to a level that's barely hinted at on most copies. Pearl Of The Quarter sounds particularly rich and sweet, just the way we like it.
The Typical Pressing: Congested and Bass Shy
One of the biggest problems with the average copy of this album is congestion. On King Of The World, for example, many copies never quite open up at the chorus. On our Hot Stamper copies, the sound is more spacious, allowing all the voices and instruments room to breathe. The soundfield needs to be BIG and WIDE for this album to work, and on the best copies we played the sound is HUGE.
Another big problem with a typical copy is a glaring lack of bass. This is Steely Dan, man. Last I heard they had a pretty good bass player by the name of Walter Becker. We have to imagine that the band wanted you to hear bass -- and plenty of it. Any copy of this album that doesn't have lots of deep, well-defined bass just isn't gonna do it for us.
A World Of Difference
After hearing scores of bad sounding pressings, we weren't sure that we'd ever find a true champion. We have no less than three dozen copies of this album on our shelves -- most of them aren't even worth selling. We drop the needle on a copy briefly and the faults reveal themselves quickly. If we don't hear the Better Records sound, we toss that copy and move on to another. The difference between a Hot Stamper and an average copy is so huge, that we don't need to waste much time on the also-rans.
Dropping the needle on this copy was an entirely different experience -- on BOTH sides. From the moment the needle hit the grooves, we were treated to a BIG, WIDE soundfield. The sound went from wall to wall and floor to ceiling -- exactly what you want for this music. The vocals were smooth and silky, dramatically different from the grainy voices we heard on most of the copies we played.
One thing to note: this isn't Aja or Pretzel Logic. We doubt you'll be using ANY copy of this album as a Demo Disc. That said, this is an exceptional copy of this wonderful album that will MURDER the typical pressing. Trust us -- we had to play a lot of losers before we found this winner!
We love this music!
There's so much we could say about this album, but we probably couldn't say it better than the especially insightful Rolling Stone review below. AMG also goes nuts over this one, giving it their top 5 star rating. This is the only Steely Dan album recorded with a full live band, and our Hot Stamper copies really conveys the fun and energy of the recording session.
One More Thing
It's beyond difficult to find superb sounding copies of this album that play very quietly. Old ABC vinyl just isn't very good. We only had a handful of sides that played any better than Mint Minus Minus.
Newrv03-07-01-FRED062909
allsteelydan
Overall Sonic Grade:
Side One - A+ to A++
Side Two - A++
Vinyl Grade:
1) mostly Mint Minus (light dish, slightly noisy edge and during quiet bits)
2) Mint Minus to Mint Minus Minus (noisy edge and between tracks, track four has a noisy intro)
Cover Grade: 8 out of 10
TRACK LISTING
Side One
Bodhisattva
Razor Boy Track Commentary
This is the track I use to judge side one. Almost every copy you come across has grainy vocals, if there are any highs at all. This is true for the entire album, but it's especially noticeable on this track. When the vocals are smooth and sweet, or at least as smooth and sweet as one can hope for, you are playing a good copy. Consider yourself one of the lucky ones.
That's if there's bass. This is a rock record, and rock records, like all records, need bass. So if the vocals on this track are right and the bass is good, you might actually have a winner.
The Boston Rag
Your Gold Teeth
Side Two
Show Biz Kids
My Old School
Pearl of the Quarter
King of the World Track Commentary
There's a lot going on in the chorus here, and the average copy suffers badly from congestion. If a copy doesn't have enough extension up top, you can forget about this track sounding any good.
AMG Rave Review
The loud guitars and pronounced backbeat of "Bodhisattva," "Show Biz Kids," and "My Old School" camouflage the fact that Countdown is a riskier album, musically speaking, than its predecessor. Each of its eight songs have sophisticated, jazz-inflected interludes, and apart from the bluesy vamps "Bodhisattva" and "Show Biz Kids," which sound like they were written for the stage, the songs are subtly textured. "Razor Boy," with its murmuring marimbas, and the hard bop tribute "Your Gold Teeth" reveal Becker and Fagen's jazz roots, while the country-flavored "Pearl of the Quarter" and the ominous, skittering "King of the World" are both overlooked gems. Countdown to Ecstasy is the only time Steely Dan played it relatively straight, and its eight songs are rich with either musical or lyrical detail that their album rock or art rock contemporaries couldn't hope to match.
Rolling Stone Review
Walter Becker and Donald Fagen were wiseass New York musicians stranded in LA. in the early Seventies, and they poured all the cynicism and paranoia of that circumstance into Steely Dan, the most notorious studio band in the annals of classic rock.
Their second album, Countdown to Ecstasy, was the only record by the reclusive duo written for an actual live band, and you can tell— especially on hoo-ha! cuts such as “My Old School,” a catchy little tune about college placement and prostitution, with its pounding, stupidly grinning piano riffs; scorching guitar solos, somehow both showy and unselfconscious; and above all jubilant horn charts.
"The Boston Rag” begins as a sophisticated, jazzy number, but then the band players forget themselves: The solo by Jeff “Skunk” Baxter is as nasty, distorted and molten as rock guitar has ever been. The jump and jive of Bodhisattva is so celebratory, it could be the music for a Looney Tunes cartoon.
Smart, conflicted bands from Weezer to the Eels owe Steely Dan big time, not because guys with glasses should stick together, but because on Countdown to Ecstasy, the band was human, not just brainy. Like good stretches of the Stones’ Exile on Main Street, this is a record where Steely Dan let slip their extraordinary mask of sarcasm, and could not disguise the joy in these excellent songs, or the fact that they were having a blast playing them.
- Pat Blashill
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