After their 2001 reunion album Two Against Nature, it was inevitable that Steely Dan would make a relatively swift return to the studio. And although it's over 30 years since they first started playing together, Walter Becker and Donald Fagen certainly don't come across as outmoded old relics - Everything Must Go is a conscious attempt to deal with current humanitarian issues such as globalisation and international terrorism. Musically, however, the album is highly traditional, packed with the band's trademark guitar licks, jazzy hooks and tenor saxophone. Even Steely Dan's most devoted fans will have to concede that it's a little more workmanlike than their vintage 1970s work, and some of their lyrical barbs are probably too obscure for their own good. But the best moments here prove that they remain, quite simply, a class act - and class is something that never goes out of fashion.
