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DiscountDelight - Morph the Cat
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List Price: $22.98
Our Price: $14.99
Your Save: $ 7.99 ( 35% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Reprise / Wea
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Audio CD
EAN: 0093624997627
Format: Special Edition
Label: Reprise / Wea
Manufacturer: Reprise / Wea
Publisher: Reprise / Wea
Release Date: 2006-03-14
Studio: Reprise / Wea
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: Still Undecided.
Comment: The jury is still out with this one for me. The recording sounds like any other Steely Dan/Fagen CD - great. But I think the songs are a little tooooo long. Maybe that is where I find the negativity for me. I put a few songs on my IPOD, but will wait until I add the rest. Gave it 3 stars because I liked his previous solo work & I have the Steely Dan box set.
Customer Rating:
Summary: morph the cat
Comment: This is a great album all around. It's nothing ground breaking but if you like Steely Dan, you'll like this. However the dvd-a is excellent. I don't have a surround setup, but still listen to music through a dedicated two channel system. Regardless of what others say you don't need a 5.1 or 6.1 setup to take advantage of the dvd-a. There is an option to listen in surround or advanced resolution stereo. Sitting dead in front of two speakers and listening to an album like this in 24bit/96kHz is something else. All the music just jumps out and envelopes the room. To really take advantage of it, do yourself a favor and turn it up ,this is really where you hear the difference.
I for one just wish the industry would embrace this format, and packing (dvd-a + cd). I will gladly pay more for both versions. Too bad people can't stop stealing music.
Customer Rating:
Summary: DVD-A version is wonderful
Comment: It is great to get both the CD and the DVD-A in this special set, so you can compare the two systems. I only have a stereo DVD-A system, but the sound of the bass and drums is already several notches above what I have learnt to expect. It sounds open and very live, and draws you in to some fine music and lyrics.
It is a subtler, jazzier album than 'Nightfly', and I like the jazz/funk playing more in this than either of the recent Dan releases. I love Becker's guitar playing, but Herington, Krantz and McCracken dazzle, and the new keyboard sounds, including a fat Hammond tone and a 'harmolodia' replacing the blues synth, enrich it as well. Fagen's harmonic creativity is as distinctive as that of many classical composers, and is at the core of some engrossing songs. The brass arrangements and performances are also very classy and enriching.
Looking at the distortions on the cover, I thought Morph might have been a verb. But the title song suggests it is a name, with references to the cat in TS Eliot's 'Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock', and the groove makes you feel you are truckin' down Broadway. So the New York smog gets morphed into Morph the Cat, a friendly genius loci. After several listenings I think he is suggesting that you can morph your life, creating new spaces to be who you want to be. We don't have to live on anyone else's terms, and we can even turn something toxic or unpleasant into a sense of security. For example, in 'Security Joan', a humble security officer becomes an angel with a wand. We don't have to be bulldozed by others' approach to things - life's what we make it. Even Death can be morphed into the 'fellow in the brite nitegown'. 'What I do', the tribute to Ray Charles, is also a joy. It is weird to hear Fagen's reedy vocals evoking Brother Ray, held together by a beautiful simple Rhodes piano lick. 'This is the H Gang' is poppy fun, with echoes of 'Chain Lightning' and 'Peg'. Other themes of fragile love, grief and foreboding are also explored. A reprise of 'Morph the Cat' closes the album, reminding us about putting everything into Morph's context - make of it what you will.
The album makes me think of Woody Allen, but replacing his forlorn nostalgia with 21st century hepcat cool. With this DVD-A the new frontier is not off into the Nightfly's future, but we have already climbed into the dawn. This is going to become a fat classic.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Bliss
Comment: The musicianship, the groove, the swing, the production as smooth as a baby's cheek, the distillation of 35 years of Steely Dan. We've grown old together ( well Donald's only 58 ). Life is worth living after all? A cornerstone for a middle age existence? You bet! Elements of fugue, complexity of harmonies, wall of sound, Freddy Washington's perfect timing, the octave bass, Carolyn's sweet backing, get the wah-wah plugged in.
Customer Rating:
Summary: BEST ALBUM SINCE "AJA". * * * * *
Comment: Chill out on the "techno-talk" guys, this album is SMOKING HOT!
The guitar firm of Herrington, McCracken, & Krantz have brought back the creative diversity of Steely Dan albums like "Katy Lied" and particularly "Royal Scam". THE GREAT PAGODA OF FUNN is a Fagen classic like I.G.Y. WHAT I DO sounds like it's from the PRETZEL LOGIC album.....AWESOME! The best song on the album, in my opinion, and as a life-long DANAHOLIC, my opinion really matters, is THE NIGHT BELONGS TO MONA, which could easily be inserted on to Side One of the AJA album right before DEACON BLUES. Beautiful song. DAN-FANS....BUY THIS NOW.....PLAY IT LOUD.....SIP NIRSCHWASSER FROM A SHELL......SPARK A FAT ONE.....ENJOY.
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Editorial Reviews:
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The first solo album in 13 years from Donald Fagan, Morph The Cat is another contemporary classic from half of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame duo Steely Dan. With Fagan's adventurous musical depth, uniquely layered lyrics and entertaining subject matter (from a conversation with the ghost of Ray Charles to a romantic liaison with an airport security guard named Joan), Morph the Cat is the newest chapter chronicling the most sophisticated music in rock. Special Edition CD-DVD-Audio that features 5.1 mixes.
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