Moving In Stereo #2: Katy lied

Katy did? Katy lied? 

Hopefully now that you read my first article you have a half decent setup. Are you ever curious if you set it up properly? Do you ever just think “man I wish I could just listen to something on my stereo that sounds PERFECT”? Well I’ve got just the thing for you. STEELY DAN. Anybody who is anybody knows that since their inception Steely Dan has produced top notch rock (with a little bit of jazz fuzed in) albums. In 1972 they hit us with Can’t Buy a Thrill, and while some fans argue it is not of the same quality of their later stuff, FUCK THEM because musically this album is an easy 10, and sound wise same thing. It’s such a smooth recording, and everything is perfect and natural sounding. Very enjoyable music, and excellent recording, easy recommendation. After Can’t Buy a Thrill Steely Dan continued with excellent albums (although I don’t like them as much as their predecessor) Pretzel Logic and Countdown to Ecstasy are both held in the same regard as Can’t Buy a Thrill by having a super smooth, chill rock sound that can only be described as Steely Dan. In 1975 a tragedy would hit Steely Dan. 50 years later it’s still hard for some people to think about. Some people think the post Aja era when Water’s gf overdosed, and walter got hit by a car as the low point for the band, but it really was in ‘75 that things were changed forever, and it all centers around Steely Dan’s possible masterpiece Katy Lied. 

1975 the year of Katy Lied. When Steely Dan stopped touring and started work on their next album, they used more session musicians and focused more on perfection. This hustle in the studio led to a smash run of hit audiophile quality, jazz infused recordings with the Royal Scam, Aja, and Gaucho. The sound of those 3 recordings is INSANE. THEY ARE BENCHMARK RECORDINGS AND THEY ARE ANCIENT, OLD TECH ISN’T THAT BAD GET OVER IT. But you the reader are smart, and you did the math in your head and you're going “well wait a minute Alex, Steely Dan stopped touring in 1974, and you said they started their studio perfection after that, but you skipped mentioning 1975’s Katy Lied and went straight to 1976 with the Royal Scam”? Well young grasshopper, Katy Lied musically is a masterpiece in line with the other 3, but soundwise… its hard for me to say this but Katy Lied got RUINED. Katy Lied is one of the perfect albums to relapse to your drug addiction. Musically there is a really raw mix of electric guitars and keyboards that forms their signature chill rock sound,it still has that signature laid-back groove, but with a slightly more human edge than the sterile perfection of later albums. Lyrically there’s lots about yeah drug addiction, and little bits of being a seedy piece of shit, domestic violence, and nazi rallies thrown in for good measure. Doctor Wu despite the issues is a masterpiece and depending on your interpretation of the song, like my last relationship, is about a love triangle between a man, a woman, and heroin. 

I’ve said only good things about Katy Lied, because musically, lyrically all 10/10 (except for you black friday). When recording the album they used DBX encoding on the tape when mastering, for noise reduction. There have been many stories for what went wrong, but I trust the explanation by Roger Nichols (the GOAT), that while they were mastering the album, an FM radio frequency among some other things scrambled the signal of their DBX encoder, so that it didn’t encode the tape properly, meaning upon playback the tape would always be decoded improperly, making it sound… fucked up. 

Apparently they fixed the issues, but rumor has it Donald Fagen and Walter Becker never listened to the album again, deeming it unlistenable. Many fans say they can’t hear the bad sound quality and they're just dramatic perfectionists and the album is still fine. From the first moment I put Katy Lied on ITS SO FUCKING OBVIOUS THIS RECORDING GOT FUCKED. SERIOUSLY IF YOU CAN’T HEAR THE FUCKING DIFFERENCE WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU????????????????? The whole recording sounds like it's been neutered. Yknow what bass sounds like? Imagine that all mushy and limp sounding. Sparkly treble with nice crisp cymbals? Nope everything sounds washed, and it all fades so weirdly. The whole album just sounds so flat and meh, like the balls have been sucked out of it. Some people blame this on the studio monitors they used, magnepan speakers powered by some macintosh stuff. That right there is called “my dream setup”, so anybody beefing with that setup is a moron. 

Anyway the matter of fact is that while brilliant musically Katy Lied just sonically misses. Or does it???? Honestly the sound of the album while noticeably kinda wonky, fits the music and the vibe like something is off. It would be really cool to hear how the album sounded on maggies back in 1975. I genuinely think even if you think the album sonically sounds great you’d have to admit something happened to the tape, and it doesn’t sound as good as it could. But honestly the album hits so hard and I think the weird sound helps it do that. They found out that they could just throw in Michael Mcdonald singing what Donald Fagen sings just higher, and it would be the most magical thing each time. Listen to Katy Lied, it’s sort of their peak of the band's earlier sound until they moved onto further and stricter studio perfection. This album is fantastic and I promise if you can get past the cheesy villainesque, mean mugging Black Friday, there is some amazing music.