KATY LIED

Perfectly produced and beautifully performed pop jazz-rock, with razor-sharp lyrics and finely- polished compositions from the warped minds of Walter Becker and Donald Fagen: that's what you want when you hear a Steely Dan album, and that's what Katy Lied delivers in spades. From the suddenly topical again stock market ditty of Black Friday to the nostalgic and emotionally loaded Doctor Wu, Becker and Fagen prove once again that they are the masters of studio craftsmanship. Sure, it means a bit towards unfashionable soft rock (or "yacht rock", as the cool kids are calling it these days), but when it's performed this well and sounds this good I certainly don't care.