What a beautiful album from Walter Becker. The discrete man in the shadows of the Steely Dan duo provides this absolute gem. The lyrics touch the depth of feelings felt through human relationships that work, and that don't. The music is slow-to-mid tempo, and coloured with Reggae throughout. Musicianship cannot be faulted, the whole album breathes elegance; with some beautiful chord changes (the last few bars of "upside looking down" give me shivers). I travel whenever I listen to it, I find it impossible to get bored with this music. Makes me think of sinking a cold one at on the first floor of the Venice Whaler, CA, one summer evening facing the Pacific at sunset. Personally I own the Japanese SHM-CD version; audio-hifi quality is superb.

There are plenty of artists out there with so-so vocal ranges, and listeners have no trouble with them, so why I ask, are the vocals of Walter Becker always called into question, picked apart and dismissed like some crossword puzzle left at a summer beach house with a piece or two that just don’t settle in just right, especially with his ecstatic instrumentation and off the wall hipster lyrics that ascend like a pulp comic so enticingly compelling that it’s nearly impossible to it put down?Standing in juxtaposition to what one might expect from Steely Dan, is a series of breezy rhythms and instrumentation that include delightful yet more orchestrated reggae grooves, along with Becker’s own take on jazz presentations that come across as bit warmer and more full bodied. Yet take that next step into the demented mind of Walter Becker, and you find that the Steely Dan sleaze factor has been stepped up more than a notch and into a disturbing world, proving that Becker has always been the dynamic duo’s darker half, especially when considering the track “Bob Is Not Your Uncle Anymore,” a song about a teenage girl and her sexual predator uncle, that will make you feel kind of creepy for enjoying the music of the song so much as its plays against this outlandish backdrop. Then theres “Downtown Canon,” a trip down memory lane [though it might not actually have been so long ago], where Becker laments over his cocaine fueled nights. That being said, it’s not only the lyrics that get a bit weird, there’s his emulation of the experimentation of Lee “Scratch” Perry, a pioneer in the dub music scene during the 1970’s, with other numbers such as “Darkling Down” that reintroduces us the Steely Dan-ish losers we’ve all come to know, while “Three Picture Deal,” this time finds the narrator visiting Babylon L.A. as an outsider, rather than an as an active participant.Yes, this album is all about the human condition, a topic endlessly explored by Becker and Fagen both together and as solo artists, where the overseeing protagonists [a god’s eye view, though not a guiding hand] watches as the characters that make up these songs come across with a sense of being desperate in their desperation … this is all exemplified through “Door Number Two,” a song about gambling, “Paging Audrey” regarding the ultimate regret of total loss, as well as manipulation, and all things carnally lustful in “Selfish Gene” [where ‘Gene’ could actually be a person’s name, or it could indicated that there is a ‘selfish gene’ in the DNA of all of us. At this point I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention “Upside Looking Down,” and wonder why Bob Dylan was not given a ‘traditional’ credit, as the song is a delightful straight ahead ripoff of Dylan’s “Queen Jane Approximately,” both lyrically and musically. Becker must have had second thoughts about 11 Tracks Of Whack, as this time out he has assembled a cast of twenty-four players who weave in and out his songs, giving them a deeper richness and more layered presentation. There are many surprises to be found on Circus Money, and like a circus, the sideshows laid out here will keep you smiling from the beginning track to the very last, because this is a collection of Becker's finest material, certainly below that of Steely Dan, but nearly equal to anything Donald Fagen has offered.*** The Fun Facts: The traditional mask featured on the album's cover is based on traditional Central Alaskan Yup'ik facewear.While certainly not a fun fact, on the death of Walter Becker, Donald Fagen said, “Walter had a very rough childhood … I’ll spare you the details,” though it’s known that Becker came from a fractured family and was raised by his grandparents. His mother who was from England returned there, and his father dismissing him as unwanted no doubt caused a great sense of abandonment in Walter. When raised in this sort of climate, children tend to blame themselves, be untrusting, and subject to self medicating [drugs and alcohol], and are often unable to involve themselves in successful marriages [all of which we know is true in Becker’s case]. Review by Jenell Kesler