I'm a HUGE Dan Fan (if my avatar didn't make it obvious enough), but like many others, I'm disappointed by their last three offerings (those being Kamakiriad, Two Against Nature, and Everything Must Go). I've always felt that something was missing on these albums, but I could never figure it out. Well, until now (I think).
Listen to some older Steely Dan stuff. Any album will do, but later stuff is a better example. Listen to how often the chords change, or at least the voicings are altered to change the texture of the chord. Now listen to some songs of Kamakiriad or Two Against nature. Not only is the instrumentation very sparse (but not in a good way to me), but their is a lot of pedaling on one chord without voicing alterations.
The chorus of Doctor Wu from Katy Lied is a great example of a making a few chord changes sound like many. While there are only a few chords, Michael Omartian really makes the sound evolve through the chorus by changing the chord voicings with the melody line.
Hell, even listen to Black Cow from Aja, it's a sparse arrangement with some chord pedaling, but it still gets a win in my book. Fagen and Becker were just doing something right back then.
