Steely Dan Album: “Aja”

5.5 stars

I've lived my life with Aja as a chief soundtrack since it came out. I got it as a kid for Peg, and it has matured like excellent wine since.

The older I get, the better this album gets. On the walkman throughout my travels in various continents, in my car as I went coast to coast many times a year, on the turntable for many sweet evenings watching sunsets fade into the gloaming....Aja never fails. Perfect background music that opens up like a 100-year lotus to reveal, upon serious listening, many layers of harmonic and melodic and rhythmic sophistication.

Plus you can play it over and over back to back, and it just never seems to get boring. I can't think of many other recordings of any sort of music that hold up this well after a thousand or so listenings; maybe Kind of Blue, certain Bach pieces, Segovia's finest moments, and that's all that comes immediately to mind. Whatever mood you're in, Aja will heighten its highs and temper its lows. It's magic!

Don and Wally hit it way out of the park with this one. Seven perfect songs, not one second of fluff, some insanely great guitar solos, one of the best drum solos on record (Steve Gadd on the title track), a great Wayne Shorter alto solo on the same cut, Larry Carlton's inimitable snappy edge on Josie, lyrics that never grow old in their elliptical irony ("I cried when I wrote this song, sue me if I play too long"), and simply gorgeous production make this a gem beyond gems.

This may have been the peak of analog production; the ride cymbals breathe and shimmer, the Strat tones are snappy and fat, Chuck Rainey's bass on Peg pumps and pops, and on and on. Some of the greatest studio players ever are here, and at their best.

The title track is my favorite Dan tune of them all, except maybe Your Gold Teeth II. You can just float away into heaven behind this song.

No praise is too high for Aja; if you don't own this, no matter what kind of music you like, buy it. You will not be disappointed. It's like a friend that never lets you down.

I've been listening to this album (started with the LP in 1977, wore that out until the CD came out) for a long, long time. Each listen still brings a previously unheard riff. Be careful if you are not a jazz fan. Prior to getting into Steely Dan in 1977, I was listening mostly to Top 40 pop. Having listened to Aja and absolutely being engrossed by it, I read the liner notes, noted the talented musicians who played and next thing I know, I'm buying albums by Lee Ritenour, Victor Feldman, Larry Carlton, etc. For me, Steely Dan's Aja suddenly became a one way bridge from pop to the wonderful world of jazz, it changed my musical tastes. This is the album for me to take "If you would be sent to a deserted island with only one CD..."

I am a music fan who enjoys a wide diversity of genres, and as far as classic rock bands go, I will always consider Steely Dan one of the best. I have to agree with many of the reviewers here who state that this is their masterpiece. While I do own several of their other albums (and definitely plan on purchasing more of them), "Aja" is one collection of songs I find myself playing repeatedly if nothing more for the good, positive feelings it evokes in me. When I am tired/down/sad, is truly one album that ranks up there with making me feel better instantly upon hearing it; although I honestly don't have to be in any particular mood to recognize it for the sheer brilliance that it is. Smooth, uplifting, sensual, trippy, clever, intelligent, and just plain amazing!! I own a literal ton of albums, but "Aja" ranks up there easily with my Top Ten favorites. I am so glad I bought it years ago, and I can't imagine ever tiring listening to it (and the title track is incidentally my favorite Steely Dan song, as well). Donald Fagen and Walter Becker truly outdid themselves with this remarkable work!! :-)

On Aja, Steely Dan reached the perfect synthesis of their jazz, pop and rock mixture. The album contains a scant seven songs, but they are packed with classic Dan lyrics, slick production and tight musicianship. The first three songs, "Black Cow", the title track and "Deacon Blues" best typify the jazz-pop merger as they are lengthy cuts with stirring riffs, great musician interplay and Donald Fagen's all knowing vocals. "Josie" & "Peg" are bouncy, playful and chock full of big hooks. They show that the band aren't just cynics, but can be light as well. What makes Steely Dan such an interesting band is that they are willing to push the musical envelope and blur the lines between different musical styles.

AJA was Steely Dan's last great album. After five fairly hard-rocking jazz-, blues-, and R&B-based masterpieces in a row, Donald Fagen and Walter Becker must have realized that they'd taken cynicism as far as it could go with THE ROYAL SCAM, and were thinking, "Where do we go from here?" With AJA, they found an answer, playing complex, jazzy, easy-listening pop-rock that epitomizes the essence of cool in rock & roll. With its roots in Basie rather than Berry, AJA provides an escape from the noisy punk rock and prefabricated disco and teen-idol pop dominating the music world in 1977, and, unlike the duo's late-90s/early-00s "comeback" albums (ALIVE IN AMERICA, TWO AGAINST NATURE, EVERYTHING MUST GO), this one has real soul in it, showing R&B roots as well, albeit in a mellower way than the first five albums did. If you buy this CD, along with the first five, you'll have all the Steely Dan you need.