In the 1970s, Steely Dan set the standard for sophisticated jazzy pop, with their creative, harmonically elaborate music, marked by stellar musicianship and often sardonic lyrics. As I recently pointed out in a previous review, there has been a lot of retro music being created by younger groups who look to 1960s rock and soul, and to some extent to 1980s and 1990s alternative and electronic pop. But there has not much revival on the 1970s scene, though that may be getting a boost by a satellite radio format being dubbed “yacht rock” that encompasses groups like Toto, Supertramp and others. Coincidentally, we now have two very good new recordings by bands who draw upon Steely Dan as a source of influence. We recently featured the British-based group Young Gun Silver Fox. And now we have a new recording by the Canadian band Monkey House, whose new album is called Crashbox.

Actually, Monkey House, named after a Kurt Vonnegut book, is not a young retro group who just popped up. The band goes back 33 years to 1992 when composer-pianist Don Breithaupt began the project to release his own songs. Breithaupt, now 54, a received a scholarship and studied composition and arranging the Berklee College of Music, after graduating with an English and film studies major from Queens University in Kingston, Ontario. He wrote songs for other Canadian artists, and with his brother Jeff, was a co-winner of the American and International Songwriting Competitions. In addition to jazz players like Pat Metheny, Weather Report and Dave Brubeck, Don Breithaupt readily admits to his influence by Steely Dan, and has recruited a couple of musicians associated with Steely Dan, trumpeter Michael Leonhart and guitarist Drew Zingg for his own projects. Breithaupt said that he started Monkey House in a way to do compositions that might be too jazzy for some of the pop artists he was writing for. The first Monkey House album, Welcome to the Club, released in 1992 included a tune by Steely Dan’s Donald Fagen that neither Steely Dan not Fagen himself recorded.

The new album Crashbox, is the ninth Monkey House album, counting a couple of anthologies. The band has settled into a fairly constant core group with Breithaupt on keyboards and lead vocals, Justin Abedon on guitars, Pat Kilbride on bass and Mark Kelso on drums. But most of the tracks have additional guests, including horn players and added backing vocalists. The arrangements vary from relatively small to large with the horns and a couple of added string players. The music is definitely marked by the kind of distinctive chord structure that has been a trademark of Steely Dan.

The generous 53 minute, 12-song album opens with Return of the Mayfly which highlights the group’s horn-laden jazzy sound, with some hints of the Steely Dan sound, especially in the backing vocals. <<>>

Someplace on Madison is a kind of travelogue of neighborhoods in New York City, and again draws on the influence of Steely Dan in its chord structure, not to mention featuring Steely Dan’s trumpeter Michael Leonhart. <<>>

A Crashbox, according to Breithaupt is a wooden box full of theatrical noise-making props. The songwriter says the album’s title tune is about “the way news networks keep us on edge 24 hours a day.” The musical setting has an appropriate sense of urgency to it. <<>>

A contrast to that is an all-out love song called Disappear in Plain Sight. It’s nicely done, conveying the romance without being too sweet. <<>>

One of the more interesting tracks is What’s Left of This World, with post apocalyptic lyrics set in a kind of happy-go-lucky musical setting. <<>>

Another intriguing song is Smoke ‘Em If You Got ‘Em which is about an apparent impending airplane crash, likely metaphorical, with an appropriately urgent-sounding musical setting. <<>>

More mellow musically is Chasing the Muse a song about a character with a situation, in some ways like those that appear in Steely Dan songs. <<>>

The album ends with another straight love song called Feeling Your Breathe that is one of the most plaintively melodic on this tuneful album. <<>>

The long-running The Canadian band Monkey House, who still remain largely unknown in the US, have really hit it out of the park on their new album Crashbox. They show their influence by Steely Dan in a good way, though not being slavishly imitative, but draw on the harmonic sophistication, jazz influence, outstanding writing and arranging, along with first-rate musicianship that marked Steely Dan, and Monkey House take it to their own place. The group has had over 30 years to perfect their sound, and the time has been put to good use.

Our grade for audio quality is a B-plus. The mix is up to the musical standards of the band, with a nice clean, rich sound. But with music at as high a level as this, we’re going to deduct points for the drearily common practice of excessive volume compression, which waters down the dynamics of the performances, and especially mushes out the impact of the drum sounds.

If you’re looking for a source of influence, Steely Dan is not bad place to go, and Monkey House on their new album build on that for an outstanding new release, and in the process, perhaps introduce more American listeners to this first-rate Canadian band.

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<<>> indicates audio excerpt played in produced radio review

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