Donald Fagen - Kamakiriad (CD 1996)

How do you follow up a truly brilliant album like The Nightfly? Answer - you can't. If Kamakiriad had come out first it would have been greeted as Donald Fagen's left over songs from Steely Dan, sleekly recorded and packaged together as a sales ploy to take advantage of Steely Dan fans loyalty.

In all fairness - listen to any of the numbers individually and they are fairly good. You get a slick production, a very nice sound, top vocals and interesting lyrics. In fact that is the only way to listen to this album - one track at a time. One track a day.

Listening to the album as a whole, the tracks all run into one. Each number is hopelessly similar to the last. Each has a very similar sound. Almost as if all the songs had been recorded on the same day. It is almost a relief when the album ends. Not because it is bad, it isn't, but because it's so repetitive. I bought Kamakiriad a long time ago now. Every now and again I play it because I've convinced myself that my earlier impressions were false. How could the brilliant Donald Fagen possibly make such a tedious album. The fact is that all creative people run out of steam at some point. After Steely Dan and The Nightfly, Donald Fagen was sadly a creative spent force.

Perhaps this was an experiment. Much as Brian Eno enjoyed making 'wallpaper music', perhaps this is Donald Fagen's version of that experiment. Put it on softly in the background and read the newspaper - fine. Put it on in a room where there are lots of people talking - fine. Buy this if you are a huge Donald Fagen/Steely Dan fan, to help complete your collection. It's not bad. But I cannot honestly say (and I'd love to) that it's really good.