''Two Against Nature'' is the eighth

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th century as individual 78 rpm records c ...

by American rock band

Steely Dan Steely Dan is an American rock band founded in 1971 in New York by Walter Becker (guitars, bass, backing vocals) and Donald Fagen (keyboards, lead vocals). Initially the band had a stable lineup, but in 1974, Becker and Fagen retired from liv ...

. Their first studio album in 20 years, it was recorded from 1997 to 1999 and released on February 29, 2000, by

Giant Records In folklore, giants (from Ancient Greek: ''gigas'', cognate giga-) are beings of human-like appearance, but are at times prodigious in size and strength or bear an otherwise notable appearance. The word ''giant'' is first attested in 1297 fro ...

. A critical success, ''Two Against Nature'' won the group four

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pr ...

Album of the Year Album of the Year, often abbreviated to AOTY, may refer to: Awards * ARIA Award for Album of the Year, Australia * Brit Award for British Album of the Year, UK * Grammy Award for Album of the Year, US * Juno Award for Album of the Year, CA * Lati ...

Best Pop Vocal Album The Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Album is an honor presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to recording artists for quality vocal pop music albums. Awards in several ...

, Best Engineered Album – Non-Classical, and Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals (for the single "

Cousin Dupree "Cousin Dupree" is the first single from Steely Dan's 2000 album '' Two Against Nature''. The song's lyrics describe the sexual desires the titular Dupree has for his attractive cousin. In 2001, the song won a Grammy Award for Best Pop Performanc ...

"). Commercially, it peaked at number six on the U.S. ''Billboard'' 200 chart and sold more than one million copies, earning a

Platinum Platinum is a chemical element with the symbol Pt and atomic number 78. It is a dense, malleable, ductile, highly unreactive, precious, silverish-white transition metal. Its name originates from Spanish , a diminutive of "silver". Pla ...

certification from the

Recording Industry Association of America The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/ ...

Reception and legacy

''Two Against Nature'' was met with both commercial and critical success. At

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from professional critics, the album received an average score of 77, based on 13 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Writing in March 2000 for ''

The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the cr ...

'',

Robert Christgau Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most well-known and influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and ...

applauded the music as an excellent "rock comeback" and a "jumpier and snappier, sourer and trickier and less soothing" iteration of the

jazz pop Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom. The terms ''popular music'' and ''pop music'' are often used interchangeably, although the former describes a ...

featured on Steely Dan's 1977 album '' Aja'', describing it as "postfunk". Thematically, he found it unified by fictitious yet revelatory accounts of "dirty old men" seeking "validation" and "excitement" in their sex lives, which are "full of heady infatuations and random acts of cruelty, self-interest and self-hate, vicious cycles blowing hot and cold", all conveying "the urgency of attraction".

Stephen Thomas Erlewine Stephen Thomas Erlewine (; born June 18, 1973) is an American music critic and senior editor for the online music database AllMusic. He is the author of many artist biographies and record reviews for AllMusic, as well as a freelance writer, oc ...

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Music ...

appreciated the "sharp humor" in the lyrics, but was especially impressed by the music's "depth and character", as he observed "nearly endless permutations within their signature sound". A dissenting view came from ''

Pitchfork A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to ...

'' reviewer Brent DiCrescenzo, who dismissed the songs as "lengthy, indistinguishable" and "glossy bop-pop" while suggesting Steely Dan lack "soul". At the

2001 Grammy Awards The 43rd Annual Grammy Awards were held on February 21, 2001, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. Several artists earned three awards on the night. Steely Dan's haul included Album of the Year for '' Two Against Nature''. U2 took ...

, ''Two Against Nature'' earned Steely Dan wins in the categories of

, Best Engineered Album – Non-Classical, and Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals (for the single "

"). For these awards, the band was in competition with younger, more popular recording acts such as

NSYNC NSYNC (, ; also stylized as *NSYNC or 'N Sync) was an American boy band formed by Chris Kirkpatrick in Orlando, Florida, in 1995 and launched in Germany by BMG Ariola Munich. Their 'N Sync (album), self-titled debut album was successfully rele ...

Britney Spears Britney Jean Spears (born December 2, 1981) is an American singer. Often referred to as the " Princess of Pop", she is credited with influencing the revival of teen pop during the late 1990s and early 2000s. After appearing in stage producti ...

Radiohead Radiohead are an English rock band formed in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, in 1985. The band consists of Thom Yorke (vocals, guitar, piano, keyboards); brothers Jonny Greenwood (lead guitar, keyboards, other instruments) and Colin Greenwood (bass ...

Beck Beck David Hansen (born Bek David Campbell; July 8, 1970) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He rose to fame in the early 1990s with his experimental and lo-fi style, and became known for creating musical colla ...

, and

Eminem Marshall Bruce Mathers III (born October 17, 1972), known professionally as Eminem (; often stylized as EMINƎM), is an American rapper and record producer. He is credited with popularizing Hip hop music, hip hop in Middle America (United Sta ...

. According to ''

Stereogum ''Stereogum'' is a daily Internet publication that focuses on music news, reviews, interviews, and commentary. The site was created in January 2002 by Scott Lapatine. ''Stereogum'' was one of the first MP3 blogs and has received several awar ...

'' writer Zach Schonfeld, Steely Dan's success at the Grammys represented a "revenge of the aby/nowiki> boomers" and contributed to resentment among younger listeners toward the band: " e sight of two smug jazz-rock nerds collecting their Grammy from

Stevie Wonder Stevland Hardaway Morris ( Judkins; May 13, 1950), known professionally as Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, who is credited as a pioneer and influence by musicians across a range of genres that include rhythm and blues, pop, s ...

as Radiohead and Beck went home nearly empty-handed—helps explain why so many

Gen X Generation X (or Gen X for short) is the Western demographic cohort following the baby boomers and preceding the millennials. Researchers and popular media use the mid-to-late 1960s as starting birth years and the late 1970s to early 1980s as ...

-ers and old

millennials Millennials, also known as Generation Y or Gen Y, are the Western demographic cohort following Generation X and preceding Generation Z. Researchers and popular media use the early 1980s as starting birth years and the mid-1990s to early 20 ...

grew up loathing both Steely Dan and the Grammys in equal measure. Needless to say, Steely Dan's elliptical character studies set to

yacht rock Yacht rock (originally known as the West Coast soundThat ' ...

sleaze didn't speak to disaffected American youth the way, say, ''

The Marshall Mathers LP ''The Marshall Mathers LP'' is the third studio album by American rapper Eminem, released on May 23, 2000, by Aftermath Entertainment and Interscope Records. The album was produced mostly by Dr. Dre and Eminem, along with The 45 King, the Bass ...

'' did." Steely Dan's supporting tour of North America, Europe, and Japan was equally successful, encouraging them to record the 2003 album '' Everything Must Go''.

Track listing

Personnel

Steely Dan

Donald Fagen Donald Jay Fagen (born January 10, 1948) is an American musician best known as the co-founder, lead singer, co-songwriter, and keyboardist of the band Steely Dan, formed in the early 1970s with musical partner Walter Becker. In addition to his ...

–

lead vocals The lead vocalist in popular music is typically the member of a group or band whose voice is the most prominent melody in a performance where multiple voices may be heard. The lead singer sets their voice against the accompaniment parts of the ...

(all tracks),

Fender Rhodes The Rhodes piano (also known as the Fender Rhodes piano) is an electric piano invented by Harold Rhodes, which became popular in the 1970s. Like a conventional piano, the Rhodes generates sound with keys and hammers, but instead of strings, t ...

(1-3),

Clavinet The Clavinet is an electrically amplified clavichord invented by Ernst Zacharias and manufactured by the Hohner company of Trossingen, West Germany, from 1964 to 1982. The instrument produces sounds by a rubber pad striking a point on a tens ...

(1),

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

(2, 3),

Wurlitzer The Rudolph Wurlitzer Company, usually referred to as simply Wurlitzer, is an American company started in Cincinnati in 1853 by German immigrant (Franz) Rudolph Wurlitzer. The company initially imported stringed, woodwind and brass instruments ...

(4-7),

organ Organ may refer to: Biology * Organ (biology), a part of an organism Musical instruments * Organ (music), a family of keyboard musical instruments characterized by sustained tone ** Electronic organ, an electronic keyboard instrument ** Hammond ...

(9) *

Walter Becker Walter Carl Becker (February 20, 1950 – September 3, 2017) was an American musician, songwriter, and record producer. He was the co-founder, guitarist, bassist, and co-songwriter of the jazz rock band Steely Dan.Russonello, Giovanni,Listen t ...

–

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in the bass range: ** Bass (instrument), including: ** Acoustic bass gui ...

(2-7),

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected string ...

(1, 2, 4, 6, 7),

lead guitar Lead guitar (also known as solo guitar) is a musical part for a guitar in which the guitarist plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs and chords within a song structure. The lead is the fe ...

(3, 9)

Additional musicians

* Ted Baker – Fender Rhodes (4, 5, 7-9), piano (9) *

Jon Herington Jon Herington (born Jonathan Reuel Herington on April 14, 1954) is an American guitarist, singer-songwriter, record producer, and session musician. Career Herington was born in Paterson, New Jersey, and grew up in West Long Branch, New Jersey ...

–

rhythm guitar In music performances, rhythm guitar is a technique and role that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse in conjunction with other instruments from the rhythm section (e.g., drum kit, bass guitar ...

(3,4, 7, 9),

acoustic guitar An acoustic guitar is a musical instrument in the string family. When a string is plucked its vibration is transmitted from the bridge, resonating throughout the top of the guitar. It is also transmitted to the side and back of the instrument, ...

(5) *

Paul Jackson Jr. Paul Milton Jackson Jr. (born December 30, 1959) is an American fusion/urban jazz composer, arranger, producer and guitarist. He was born and raised in Los Angeles. Jackson knew by the age of fifteen that he wanted to become a professional musi ...

– guitar (8) *

Hugh McCracken Hugh Carmine McCracken (March 31, 1942 – March 28, 2013) was an American rock guitarist and session musician based in New York City, primarily known for his performance on guitar and also as a harmonica player. McCracken was additionally a ...

– guitar (5) * Dean Parks – guitar (8) *

Tom Barney Tom Barney is an American bass guitarist. Career Barney first came to prominence in the late 1970s, when he appeared on different jazz albums by Turk Mauro and Walter Davis Jr., following to appear on records by such artists as Chaka Khan, J ...

– bass (1, 8, 9) *

Keith Carlock Keith Carlock (born November 29, 1971) is an American musician who has played drums with Toto, Wayne Krantz, Steely Dan, James Taylor, Donald Fagen, Walter Becker, Tal Wilkenfeld, John Mayer, Sting, and Chris Botti. In ''Modern Drummer's'' 2009 ...

–

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair of matching drumsticks ...

(3) * Leroy Clouden – drums (4, 5, 7) *

Vinnie Colaiuta Vincent Peter Colaiuta (born February 5, 1956) is an American drummer who has worked as a session musician in many genres. He was inducted into the '' Modern Drummer'' Hall of Fame in 1996 and the ''Classic Drummer'' Hall of Fame in 2014. Cola ...

– drums (8) *

Sonny Emory Sonny is a common nickname and occasional given name. Often it can be a derivative of the English word "Son", a name derived from the Ancient Germanic element *sunn meaning "sun", a nickname derived from the Italian name Salvatore (especially in N ...

– drums (9) *

Ricky Lawson William Riser III (November 8, 1954 – December 23, 2013), better known as Ricky Lawson, was an American drummer and composer. A native of Detroit, Michigan, he worked extensively as a session musician, collaborating with Stevie Wonder, Mich ...

– drums (1) * Michael White – drums (2, 6) * Gordon Gottlieb –

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

(2, 3, 5, 6, 9) *

Will Lee William Lee (born William Lubovsky; August 6, 1908 – December 7, 1982) was an American actor who appeared in numerous television and film roles, but was best known for playing Mr. Hooper, the original store proprietor of the eponymous Hoope ...

– percussion (6) * Daniel Sadownick – percussion (3),

timbales Timbales () or pailas are shallow single-headed drums with metal casing. They are shallower than single-headed tom-toms and usually tuned much higher, especially for their size.Orovio, Helio 1981. ''Diccionario de la música cubana: biográfico ...

(3) * Dave Shank –

vibraphone The vibraphone is a percussion instrument in the metallophone family. It consists of tuned metal bars and is typically played by using mallets to strike the bars. A person who plays the vibraphone is called a ''vibraphonist,'' ''vibraharpist ...

(8) * Steve Shapiro – vibraphone (3) *

Amy Helm Amy Helm (born December 3, 1970) is an American singer-songwriter and musician. She is the daughter of drummer Levon Helm and singer Libby Titus. She is a past member of the Levon Helm's Midnight Ramble Band and Ollabelle, as well as her own t ...

–

whistle A whistle is an instrument which produces sound from a stream of gas, most commonly air. It may be mouth-operated, or powered by air pressure, steam, or other means. Whistles vary in size from a small slide whistle or nose flute type to a lar ...

(7) * Lawrence Feldman –

clarinet The clarinet is a musical instrument in the woodwind family. The instrument has a nearly cylindrical bore and a flared bell, and uses a single reed to produce sound. Clarinets comprise a family of instruments of differing sizes and pitch ...

(1, 5),

tenor saxophone The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor and the alto are the two most commonly used saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B (while ...

(4, 6),

alto saxophone The alto saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments. Saxophones were invented by Belgian instrument designer Adolphe Sax in the 1840s and patented in 1846. The alto saxophone is pitched in E, smaller than the B t ...

(5),

saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of Single-reed instrument, single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed (mouthpi ...

(3) * Roy Hitchcock - clarinet (3) *

Lou Marini Louis William Marini Jr. (born May 13, 1945), known as "Blue Lou" Marini, is an American saxophonist, arranger, and composer. He is best known for his work in jazz, rock, blues, and soul music, as well as his association with The Blues Brot ...

– alto saxophone (4, 6), tenor saxophone (2) * Chris Potter – tenor saxophone solo (1, 9), alto saxophone solo (4) *

David Tofani Dave Tofani is an American saxophonist and woodwind player, and composer. As a session musician he has performed on over 500 jazz, pop, and rock recordings such as the clarinet solo on "Say Hello, Wave Goodbye" by Soft Cell.AllMusic Dave Tofani ...

– tenor saxophone (1) saxophone (3) * Roger Rosenberg –

bass clarinet The bass clarinet is a musical instrument of the clarinet family. Like the more common soprano B clarinet, it is usually pitched in B (meaning it is a transposing instrument on which a written C sounds as B), but it plays notes an octave ...

(1, 3-5),

baritone saxophone The baritone saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of instruments, larger (and lower-pitched) than the tenor saxophone, but smaller (and higher-pitched) than the bass. It is the lowest-pitched saxophone in common use - the bass, contrab ...

(2, 6) *

Michael Leonhart Michael Leonhart (born April 21, 1974) is an American jazz trumpeter and multi-instrumentalist. Solo career In 1992 Leonhart was honored with the first Grammy Award for outstanding high school musician in the US (he attended Fiorello H. LaGuardia ...

– trumpet (1-6), Wurlitzer (3) *

Jim Pugh Jim Pugh (born February 5, 1964) is a former professional tennis player from the United States. He grew up in Palos Verdes, California and at age 10 began taking tennis lessons from John Hillebrand. He played tennis at UCLA. He became a doubl ...

–

trombone The trombone (german: Posaune, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate ...

(1-3, 5, 6) * Cynthia Calhoun –

background vocals A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are us ...

(1-3, 6, 8, 9) *

Carolyn Leonhart Carolyn Leonhart (born July 10, 1971) is a jazz singer, daughter of jazz bassist Jay Leonhart and sister of the trumpeter Michael Leonhart. She has performed as a back-up vocalist for Steely Dan on several tours and recordings. Childhood and educa ...

– background vocals (1-5, 7-9) * Michael Harvey – background vocals (1-3, 5, 6, 9)

Production

* Producers: Walter Becker, Donald Fagen * Executive engineer: Roger Nichols * Engineers: Phil Burnett, Per-Christian Nielsen, Johan Edlund, Anthony Gorman, Roger Nichols, Ken Ross, Dave Russell, Jay A. Ryan,

Elliot Scheiner Elliot Ray Scheiner (born 18 March 1947) is a music producer, mixer and engineer. Scheiner has received 27 Grammy Award nominations, eight of which he won, and he has been awarded four Emmy nominations, two Emmy Awards for his work with the Eagl ...

, Peter Scriba * Mixing: Roger Nichols, Dave Russell * Mastering: Scott Hull * Assistants: Suzy Barrows, Reaann Zschokke * Technician: Roger Nichols * Editing: Jan Folkson * Horn arrangements: Walter Becker (1), Donald Fagen (1, 2, 4-6),

(1, 3) * Project manager: Jill Dell'Abate * Project coordinator: Suzana Haugh * Consultant: Michael Leonhart * Piano tuner: Sam Berd * Electric piano technician: Edd Kolakowski * Design: Carol Bobolts * Photography: Michael Northrup/

Jason Fulford Jason Fulford (born 1973) is an American photographer, publisher and educator, based in Brooklyn, New York City. The primary format for Fulford's own photography is the book, which include ''Sunbird'' (2000), ''Crushed'' (2003), ''Raising Frogs For ...

* Copyist: Michael Leonhart

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Awards

2001 Grammy Awards

References

External links

Official site

* {{Authority control 2000 albums Giant Records (Warner) albums Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Album Grammy Award for Album of the Year Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical Steely Dan albums Albums produced by Donald Fagen Albums produced by Walter Becker