Show Notes
Can an album be nostalgic for a future that never arrived?
When Donald Fagen released The Nightfly in 1982, it sounded unlike anything else. Immaculately produced, filled with jazz sophistication and lyrical detail, it looked back to the optimism of 1950s America through the eyes of a teenager convinced that tomorrow would always be brighter than today.But beneath its flawless surface lies something more poignant. Is The Nightfly really a celebration of the American Dream, or is it an elegy for a vision of the future that quietly slipped away? I'm Mathew Woodall, and this is Low Noise. Tune in to one of the finest solo albums ever made and asking why, more than forty years later, The Nightfly still sounds like tomorrow.
In this episode I am in discussion with Dr. Andrew Webber.
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