The sardonic brain trust that comprised Steely Dan in this outing, explore with delicious irony and wit various ills and taboo associated with American societal organisation; moreover, in the decade that followed the one undeniable theme that comes from this album and its predecessor (Aja) is that despite the inevitable innovation, production advances and marketing associated with the music industry, that those lyrics and music, which will stand the test of time comes from both individual musician and songwriters whose passion is to tell us a story or to evoke through music both pleasure and pain that has been either masked or embellished. Something the popular music failed to accomplish in the eighties, thanks goodness these musician and lyricist saw fit to utilise, jazz, pop rock and words to suggest to the next generation of musician and songwriters that it is indeed about the music.