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THE NIGHTFLY
Donald Fagen

DVD Audio Dolby Digital 5.1 DTS 5.1

Review by Michael Jacobson

Album ****

Donald Fagen's The Nightfly was one of the staple listening experiences of my youth.  I was only 13 years old when it came out...at the time, I knew who Steely Dan was, but I didn't know WHAT a Steely Dan was, or for that matter, even what a Donald Fagen was, or that he was one half of that legendary 70s duo.

But when my parents bought their first true state of the art stereo system, there was my cousin Ken with his freshly pressed LP of The Nightfly to use as a demo.  I had heard "I.G.Y." on the radio before, but I was really blown away by the crisp, cool music radiating from my parents' new speakers.  The songs were a kind of undercurrent to Ken's excited speech about how the album was recorded, and the number of tracks and musicians, and how it was the first full digital recording by an American pop artist, and so forth.

And compact discs were just around the corner.  Ken was one of the first on his block to own one, and when he introduced me to that shiny new component that used a laser instead of a needle, sure enough, it was Donald Fagen again.  The Nightfly would soon become a primary purchase for me when I acquired my first CD player in 1986, as well as a staple demonstration disc in my family's video and electronics store.

How fitting now, that all these years later, The Nightfly is what I grab to show off DVD's capabilities for 6 channel surround music.  It's always been the perfect sounding recording no matter what the platform of the time had been, and it continued on into the future...indeed, the New Frontier.

Fagen's album hung a loose concept of being hip and young in late 50s and early 60s for the OTHER youths, who were more into Brubeck than Berry, and whose culture consisted of art, film and jazz rather than mods and rockers.  The Nightfly is a beautifully crafted soundscape of thought, fantasy and music that seems just as fresh and stand alone today as it did in the early 80s.

From the promise of a better world "by '76" in "I.G.Y.", to the cool romantic pulses of "Ruby Baby", from the survivalist attitude of "New Frontier" to the closing perfection of "Walk Between Raindrops", Fagen proved that with or without Dan, he was capable of crafting superb pop tunes that warmed your ears and stimulated you mind at the same time.  Twenty years later, this is still for me the perfect lights-out album.  It's the soundtrack of nighttime in the city.

I'm glad to see a fruitful new outing for a reunited Steely Dan, but there will always be a special place in my heart for The Nightfly.  It would have been one of my first choices for a DVD Audio offering, so needless to say, I'm very glad it was served up as soon as it was.

Audio ****

The multi-channel remix is, in a word, perfect.  For an album in which I've known every note by heart for years, I found the 5.1 offerings as easy to slip into as a comfortable chair.  From the opening phrase of "I.G.Y." where the horns sounded from the rear stage while Fagen's blues harp synth carried its lilting melody up front, I knew this concept would work.  Even more adventurous is "Green Flower Street", which keeps muted guitar just to your right and back, and the two solos trade back and forth from forward to rear (courtesy of Larry Carlton and Rick Derringer).  Each tune is presented with its original digital clarity plus...I noticed even more textures than ever before, including the subtle percussions of "The Goodbye Look" to the surrounding sensation of warm organ tones in "Walk Between Raindrops".  As mentioned, after 20 years, this is still for me the perfect audio demonstration disc.

I noticed no real discernable difference between the Dolby Digital and DTS offerings...both were equally good.

Extras:

The disc contains the original video for "New Frontier", which shows it's age visually, but fortunately, is paired with the new Dolby Digital 5.1 mix for the song.  Lyrics are also included, as well as a rather nicely done menu screen.  Only strange pictures show on your television screen during audio playback.