Steely Dan: Android Warehouse

Steely Dan recorded a large number of demos between 1968-1971 that have since become the fodder for an equally large number of bootleg collections. Most of these collections offer little care in the way of packaging: ugly cover art; minimal, if any, liner notes; and little, if any, information on the songs themselves. Android Warehouse rises somewhat above other such compilations simply for being more comprehensive than others: Its two CDs feature 28 tracks, comprising pretty much anything you'll find on any other boots. There are two pages of liner notes here, briefly recapping the band's history without gushing, but information on the band is incomplete and there's nothing in the way of track times or background information. That said, Android Warehouse succeeds in making a case that these mostly piano-and-vocals demos of middling sonic quality should have been completed and released. A few eventually did see the light of day - "Charlie Freak," "Caves of Altamira," "Barrytown," and "Brooklyn" - but the lost tracks are worthwhile listens in their own right, with nary a clunker. "Brain Tap Shuffle" and "Ida Lee" foretell the dark, cryptic humor that would inform many of their later recordings, while "I Can't Function" and the poppy "Come Back Baby" nicely foretell the jazz-rock-blues fusion that Donald Fagen and Walter Becker would perfect in the next few years. The only true missteps are the cuts where the forgotten Keith Thomas takes the vocal rein from Fagen: His nerdish timbre on "Soul Ram" and "The Old Regime" sounds woefully out of place. On the other hand, Becker gets a rare vocal on the magnificently wiggy Alice Through the Looking Glass update "Mock Turtle Song" (labeled on some collections as "Mock Turtle Soup"). To the extent that one can recommend bootleg compilations without guilt, Android Warehouse is the most comprehensive on the market and probably the way to go. - Joseph McCombs - Greger

Version 1

1. You Go Where I Go
2. A Little With Sugar
3. Roaring of the Lamb
4. Charlie Freak
5. Sun Mountain
6. Oh Wow It's You
7. Undecided
8. Caves of Altamira
9. Any World (That I'm Welcome To)
10. More to Come
11. Parker's Band
12. Barrytown
13. Brain Tap Shuffle
14. Brooklyn (Owes the Charmer Under Me)
15. Mock Turtle Song
16. Yellow Peril
17. Android Warehouse
18. A Horse in Town
19. Ida Lee
20. Stone Piano
21. Take It Out on Me
22. This Seat's Been Taken
23. Come Back Baby
24. Don't Let Me In
25. Old Regime
26. Soul Ram
27. I Can't Function
28. Let George Do It

Ägare

Dessa 3 medlemmar har "Android Warehouse" i sin samling:
Alexei   sonderangerbot   Suarn