Steely Dan Pretzel Logic UHQR Clarity Vinyl 45RPM (2 LP)

Limited to Two Copies Per Customer Per Address!
Definitive Limited Run Ultra High Quality Record 200g 45rpm 2LP!
Steely Dan's Gold-Selling Third Studio Album Now on UHQR - Limited to 15,000 Numbered Copies!
Mastered Directly from the Original Master Tape by Bernie Grundman!
Pressed at Quality Record Pressings using Clarity Vinyl®!
Definitive reissue Ultra High Quality Record, the pinnacle of high-quality vinyl!
Purest possible pressing and most visually stunning presentation and packaging!
Tip-on old style gatefold double pocket jackets with film lamination by Stoughton Printing!
Steely Dan's third studio album, "Pretzel Logic", featured "Rikki Don't Lose That Number", the biggest pop hit of their career, and brought the band back on the radio. Becker and Fagen invited prominent musicians from Los Angeles into the studio for the recordings, but they only had them play occasional overdubs. Drummer Jim Hodder was given a backing vocalist role and was replaced on his instrument by Jim Gordon and Jeff Porcaro.
The songs on "Pretzel Logic" are shorter than on the predecessor "Countdown to Ecstasy". Steely Dan saw this as the band's attempt to make full musical statements within the three-minute pop song format. In terms of content, everything revolves around nostalgia, lost love and the struggles in creative processes. One of the distinctive features of "Pretzel Logic" is the use of unusual chord progressions and unexpected musical twists. The whole album is proof of the band's musical prowess with its intricate arrangements.
The reissue of the album as an Ultra High Quality Record with 45 rpm, pressed on transparent 200 gram vinyl, is produced with attention to detail. The LP was mastered by sound engineer legend Bernie Grundman. The publication is limited to 20,000 numbered copies.
Steely Dan's gold-selling third studio album Pretzel Logic charted at No. 8 on the Billboard 200 and restored the group's radio presence with the single "Rikki Don't Lose That Number," which became the biggest pop hit of their career and peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100. The 1974 album was produced by Gary Katz and was written primarily by Walter Becker (bass) and bandleader Donald Fagen (vocals, keyboards). The album marked the beginning of Becker and Fagen's roles as Steely Dan's principal members.
They enlisted prominent Los Angeles-based studio musicians to record Pretzel Logic, but used them only for occasional overdubs, except for drums, where founding drummer Jim Hodder was reduced to a backing singer, replaced by Jim Gordon and Jeff Porcaro on the drum kit for all of the songs on the album. Steely Dan's Jeff "Skunk" Baxter played pedal steel guitar and hand drums.
Pretzel Logic has shorter songs and fewer instrumental jams than the group's 1973 album Countdown to Ecstasy. Steely Dan considered it the band's attempt at complete musical statements within the three-minute pop-song format. The album's music is characterized by harmonies, counter-melodies, and bop phrasing. It also relies often on straightforward pop influences. The syncopated piano line that opens "Rikki Don't Lose That Number" develops into a pop melody, and the title track transitions from a blues song to a jazzy chorus.
Rolling Stone praised the album, calling Steely Dan the "most improbable hit-singles band to emerge in ages."
"When the band doesn't undulate to samba rhythms (as it did on 'Do It Again,' its first Top Ten single), it pushes itself to a full gallop (as it did on 'Reelin' in the Years,' its second). These two rhythmic preferences persist and sometimes intermingle, as on 'Rikki Don't Lose That Number,' which jumps in mid-chorus from 'Hernando's Hideaway' into 'Honky Tonk Women.' Great transition." - Rolling Stone
AllMusic gave the album 5 stars, with reviewer Stephen Thomas Erlewine noting that "instead of relying on easy hooks, Walter Becker and Donald Fagen assembled their most complex and cynical set of songs to date." Dense with harmonics, countermelodies, and bop phrasing, Pretzel Logic is vibrant with unpredictable musical juxtapositions and snide, but very funny, wordplay.
The album's cover photo featuring a New York pretzel vendor was taken by Raeanne Rubenstein, a photographer of musicians and Hollywood celebrities. She shot the photo on the west side of Fifth Avenue and 79th Street, just above the 79th Street Transverse (the road through Central Park), at the park entrance called "Miners' Gate."
After a brief battle with esophageal cancer, Walter Becker died on September 3, 2017 at the age of 67. Steely Dan has sold more than 40 million albums worldwide and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in March 2001. VH1 ranked Steely Dan at No. 82 on their list of the 100 Greatest Musical Artists of All Time. Rolling Stone ranked them No. 15 on its list of the 20 Greatest Duos of All Time.
This stereo UHQR reissue will be limited to 15,000 copies, with gold foil individually numbered jackets, housed in a premium slipcase with a wooden dowel spine.
"If Pretzel Logic is your personal go-to Steely Dan album, this UHQR edition is absolutely for you. If you want to test your jazz-lineage chops and get further inside the music to hear how SD are literally transitioning their studio acumen right before your very ears into a signature style that wound up blooming in full force on their subsequent albums, then this UHQR edition is definitely for you too... Logic stands tall in all its 200g 45rpm 2LP clear-vinyl glory, just like many a great record on the phonograph should." - Mike Mettler, Analog Planet, Music 8/10, Sound 9/10

Features:

• Limited to Two Copies Per Customer Per Address
• Numbered, Limited Edition - 15,000 Copies
• Ultra High Quality Record (UHQR®)
• 200g Vinyl
• 45rpm
• Double LP
• Mastered Directly from the Original Master Tape by Bernie Grundman
• Pressed at Quality Record Pressings using Clarity Vinyl®
• Purest Possible Pressing
• Tip-On Old-Style Gatefold Double Pocket Jackets with Film Lamination by Stoughton Printing
• Gold Foil Individually Numbered Jackets
• Premium Slipcase with a Wooden Dowel Spine

Selections:

Side A
1. Rikki Don't Lose That Number
2. Night By Night
Side B
1. Any Major Dude Will Tell You
2. Barrytown
3. East St. Louis Toodle-Oo
Side C
1. Parker's Band
2. Through With Buzz
3. Pretzel Logic
Side D
1. With A Gun
2. Charlie Freak
3. Monkey In Your Soul