Aja
was cool, relaxed, and controlled; it sounded deceptively easy. Its follow-up,
Gaucho
, while sonically similar, is its polar opposite: a precise and studied record, where all of the seams show.
essentially replicates the smooth
jazz-pop
of
, but with none of that record's dark, seductive romance or elegant aura. Instead, it's meticulous and exacting; each performance has been rehearsed so many times that it no longer has any emotional resonance. Furthermore,
Walter Becker
and
Donald Fagen
's songs are generally labored, only occasionally reaching their past heights, like on the suave
"Babylon Sisters,"
"Time Out of Mind,"
"Hey Nineteen."
Still, those three songs are barely enough to make the remainder of the album's glossy, meandering
fusion
worthwhile. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine