Certain Fantasies

Thought I'd ease myself back in with a fairly lightweight, and perhaps rambling post.

The liner notes of Donald Fagen's 1982 album, The Nightfly, read:

"The songs on this album represent certain fantasies that might have been entertained by a young man growing up in the remote suburbs of a northeastern city during the late fifties and early sixties i.e. one of my general weight, height and build."

Despite this sentiment being one which we may take for granted on many albums, the explicit autobiographical aspect (along with the unsurpassed cover and general excellence) gives The Nightfly a place amongst my favourite albums of the era.

Listening to the new Julian Casablancas record, I keep recalling aspects of the Nightfly. There's something about the lyrics that seem more real than they ever did on a Strokes record, the production is meticulous (like The Nightfly), and whereas Fagen marries his 50s dreams with an 80s aesthetic, Casablancas strides a gap between the 80s of his youth and the present.

I've only given it a few listens so far, but it seems a a strangely naive yet also gloriously realised album.