Morph The Cat
by Donald Fagen
  • Record Label: Reprise
  • Release Date: Mar 14, 2006
User Score
8.2

Universal acclaim- based on 45 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 37 out of 45
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 45
  3. Negative: 6 out of 45

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  1. RH
    Mar 17, 2006
    0
    Most of these reviews are from runofthemill publications.......hence why the rating is so high. Maybe if you are only listening to mainstream filth, you'll find this refreshing. Otherwise, ignore it like you would Steely Dan.
  2. Mack
    Apr 23, 2006
    2
    I just don't get it. It mystifies me how anyone could be so enamored with this vapid, smooth jazz-esque, ready-made keyboard-solo elevator music. Plus, does anyone notice how there's very little variation or perhaps evolution from album to album? If this album was created by a young indie band, it would be given terrible reviews - but slap Donald Fagen's name on it and I just don't get it. It mystifies me how anyone could be so enamored with this vapid, smooth jazz-esque, ready-made keyboard-solo elevator music. Plus, does anyone notice how there's very little variation or perhaps evolution from album to album? If this album was created by a young indie band, it would be given terrible reviews - but slap Donald Fagen's name on it and it's a masterpiece? If the lyrics are so good, how about placing them in something other than a lazy soft jazz setting? How emotional connection with this 'musac' is possible is beyond me. Plus, most artists receive poor reviews when they just keep making the same music over and over - yet once again, Donald Fagen could release this same album every year and reviewers would fawn over it as a treasure. Come on. It's a shame how many wonderful albums are rated lower than this granola background music. Since when has being a huge Donald Fagen fan given reviewers such great street cred?… Collapse
  3. SteelyDanFan
    May 28, 2017
    0
    As a Steely Dan and Donald **** fan I am extremely disappointed. This album is one of the worst that I've had to sit through, with only 2 good songs and 1 mediocre song out of 9.
    In this album **** has seemed to lose his unique singing voice and taste for instrumentals and good lyrics and sticks to....... lord know what.
    H-Gang and What I do are the highlights of this album, Mary Shut    As a Steely Dan and Donald **** fan I am extremely disappointed. This album is one of the worst that I've had to sit through, with only 2 good songs and 1 mediocre song out of 9.
    In this album **** has seemed to lose his unique singing voice and taste for instrumentals and good lyrics and sticks to....... lord know what.
    H-Gang and What I do are the highlights of this album, Mary Shut the Garden Door is alright too. The rest are terrible and tasteless. Morph the Cat sounds like the theme to a crummy sitcom from the 90's, and the rest are so forgettable I can't recollect what their names even are!
    And here's the creme de la crap,**** thought Morph the Cat was so good, that he should have a reprise of it on the album. Yes, that's right, they put a reprise of the first song in the album! Who in their right minds thought that was a good idea? Maybe if this was in concert or the soundtrack to a movie it would make sense, but this isn't either of those!    … Expand

Awards & Rankings

32
#32 Best Album of 2006
97
#97 Most Discussed Album of 2006
55
#55 Most Shared Album of 2006

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
83

Universal acclaim - based on 16 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 13 out of 16
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 16
  3. Negative: 0 out of 16
  1. Los Angeles Times
    75
    At his best he spins these tales with a mix of literary craft and jazzman's cool, animating his narratives with vivid and colorful language. [5 Mar 2006]
  2. The Guardian
    100
    The album is imbued with a post-9/11 dread, which deters Fagen from recycling the nostalgia and Lynchian fantasy of his previous albums.
    Read full review
  3. Entertainment Weekly
    83
    With its precisely calibrated funk grooves, exquisitely tasteful playing, and general air of blissed-out languor, Morph is firmly in the smoothed-out tradition of latter-day Dan discs like Gaucho. [17 Mar 2006, p.111]
See all critic reviews »