In Brief

** 1/2 Steely Dan, “Alive in America,” Giant. This belated souvenir of the 1993-94 comeback tours offers impeccably played, mostly faithful versions of 10 Dan oldies, with one good new Walter Becker song. The renditions are clean, sophisticated and a tad bloodless, but strong enough to make it seem a waste that these legendary studio obsessives couldn’t have aired it out in real time during their ‘70s heyday.

New albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor) to four (excellent).