Steely Dan--Countdown to Ecstasy 50th Anniversary Remaster

[Soc Prof]

Out for digital release today is the 50th anniversary remaster of Steely Dan's Countdown to Ecstasy, with resolution up to 24/192. I see an lp release on Amazon but can't find a CD version.

[markwoll]

Great album, has some of my favorites. Bodhisattva

[SunRunner2]

Great album, has some of my favorites. Bodhisattva

That's a good one, but my favorite from their second album was "My Old School". Overall, I am of the view that they started to hit their stride with "Pretzel Logic" and really began nailing it with "Katy Lied", which in my view was a killer.

[jkelman]

Out for digital release today is the 50th anniversary remaster of Steely Dan's Countdown to Ecstasy, with resolution up to 24/192. I see an lp release on Amazon but can't find a CD version.

No CD released. It'll be coming as an SACD Hybrid in the next while, as they're doing the entire Dan catalogue (and have released SACDs of Cant Buy a Thrill, Two Against Nature & Everything Must Go already, so with the Countdown Remaster now out, the SACD shouldn't be far behind).

The three SACDs already out sound amazing, as do high res of the first two albums. Can't comment on vinyl as, well, I don't do vinyl...

[Soc Prof]

No CD released. It'll be coming as an SACD Hybrid in the next while, as they're doing the entire Dan catalogue (and have released SACDs of Cant Buy a Thrill, Two Against Nature & Everything Must Go already, so with the Countdown Remaster now out, the SACD shouldn't be far behind).

The three SACDs already out sound amazing, as do high res of the first two albums. Can't comment on vinyl as, well, I don't do vinyl...

Thanks for the info. Music Direct has the SACDs you mention in stock, plus the future ones with dates TBA.

[jkelman]

Thanks for the info. Music Direct has the SACDs you mention in stock, plus the future ones with dates TBA.

As does Elusive Discs. They announced all of them at once some time ago, so I preordered all of them and am now just waiting as they are released one, sometimes two, at a time.

I've had earlier SACDs of Countdown to Ecstasy (Japanese) and Gaucho, DVD-A (with 24/96 LPCM) of Two Against Nature and Everything Must Go, as well as MQA CDs (all Japanese) of Pretzel Logic, Royal Scam and Aja (so, oddly, Katy Lied is the only one of Dan's commercial releases not to see a high res hard media release, which seems odd to me), but based on the four released as part of this new reissue series, I'm glad I'll be replacing all of them, and finally getting Katy Lied on SACD to boot.

Also, because what they appear to be doing, at least with the '70s titles (they've not released TAN or EMG on vinyl as far as I know, but I was able to rip the LPCM 24/96 of those so I can put them on my portable DAP), they'll also be releasing them as high res downloads, so when this is all over I'll have the SACDs (which I still think best the 24/192 versions) for home use and the 24/192 downloads for when I'm out of the house.

So, as a major Dan fan, I'm a very happy guy. As I've already done, I'll be looking to get rid of my earlier SACDs/MQAs (have already sold my DVD-As). My existing ones still sound great, but I'm liking the new masters just that much better.

On that front, if anyone wants to buy my earlier ones, just reach out with a PM and I'll be happy to sell them...and I'll not sell them for more than I originally paid...I'm not looking to make money, just to get what I originally invested to help pay for the new ones. So, to put the list on one easy place, what I've got is (and prices all in USD, buyer pays shipping). And if anyone wants to buy more than one (or, even better, all of them), I'll happily work out a deal for ya:

1. Countdown to Ecstasy (Japan, SACD only NOT Hybrid): $30
2. Pretzel Logic (Japan, MQA UHQCD): $21
3. The Royal Scam (Japan, MQA UHQCD): $21
4. Aja (Japan, MQA UHQCD): $21
5. Gaucho (USA, SACD Hybrid): $35

FYI, I've already sold the DVD-As of Two Against Nature and Everything Must Go. For those unfamiliar with MQA, they're playable on CD players but if you have an MQA decoder (firmware, and OPPO made it available before they dropped selling multi-disc players, so my UDP-205 can play them), they can provide up to 24/384 resolution.

Cheers!
John

[interbellum]

Unlike Gaucho almost all Steely Dan-SACD are stereo, which is why I only have Gaucho on that medium. Fagen's first three soloalbums are in surround on DVDvideo (MVDI discs) in the Nightfly Trilogy-set.

[Vic2012]

It's a top 3 Dan album for me. Love the whole album. Standout track for me is Razor Boy. It's tropical, and twisted. Victor Feldman was a force to be reckoned with.