The Nightfly
Donald Fagen's 1982 solo debut extends the sleek, smart pop craft of his work withSteely Daninto the realm of the concept album, taking the Dan's penchant for intricate plotting, evocative narrative voices, and allusive imagery to the logical next step. Fagen's connective thread is futurist nostalgia for the "New Frontier" as anticipated from the prosperous vantage point of late-'50s America. He romanticizes a brave new world of technology in the sultry diorama of "I.G.Y.," celebrating the coming glories of the Atomic Age. He then filters that view through his own suburban adolescence--a would-be seduction in a fallout shelter, the siren song of a graveyard-shift jazz DJ, a not-quite-hard-boilednoiradventure ("The Goodbye Look") that borrows its title from an early '60sRoss MacDonaldmystery. Song for song, the set's a stunner and stands apart from Steely Dan thanks to a unique, poignant romanticism embodied in Fagen's yearning "Maxine" and a creamy update ofDion & the Belmonts' "Ruby Baby."--Sam Sutherland