Aja

I never got the fuss over this album, or indeed Steely Dan in general. I don’t know what this is or who it’s for. The whole thing feels like after dinner entertainment at an all-inclusive holiday resort - it’s not the worst evening you’ve ever had, but if you’re being totally honest with yourself you’d rather be somewhere else.

Boring. You can see why punk happened.

Even trying to have an open mind, I spent the majority of the album hoping it would end soon. Each song was followed by another somehow even less interesting.

I. Just. Do. Not. Get. It. This isn't my first attempt to listen to this album and I made it all the way through this time. Occasionally, I like what's happening on the guitar. But overall it this music has as much edge as a tub of butter. Why is this band and this album so revered? Wouldn't you rather just listen to prog rock?? Or jazz?? Or butter??? Help me.

Goddamn Steely Dan, you dildo-name-thieving fucks. You make lackluster songs, bathe them in sanitizing liquid until the recording is so clean it could be eaten off of, and then you get the fucking best musicians in the world to actually make them sound good. How do you expect me to cope with Gadd and Purdie on the same album? Fuck you. Four Stars.

Look, I'm willing to admit the possibility that I'm listening to this album from too modern of a perspective. But it's not good is it? The songwriting is bland, the arrangements are mediocre, and the performances are lackluster. The ONLY reason this album is saved from a one-star review is that the engineering and production are out-of-this-world good. I don't know when the last time was that I heard such crispy drums and such a perfectly balanced stereo mix. This production is so good. It's just a shame it's wasted on such a turd of an album.

Difficult to look at this impartially, being one of my favourite and frequently played albums, so I’ll just gush. I kind of understand some people’s “bland/Muzak” perception. I don’t often “get” much punk, early Country or a lot of hip-hop, but... ... This album has amazing musicianship - albeit very calculated and brilliantly produced. The antithesis of punk. Love the funky pop of Black Cow, I got the news, Peg, the mature jazz crossover of Aja, the sophistication of Deacon Blues and the rock of Home at last and Josie. A perfect timeless album.

Another incredible Steely Dan album. I prefer Countdown to Ecstasy/Pretzel Logic/Katy Lied, but this album hits all , the right notes and has some amazing songs. “Deacon Blues” might be one of my favorite Steely Dan songs, and it might well be a paradigmatic Steely Dan song. They write about losers and castaways and shady, shitty characters down on their luck and this song captures that ethos so well (“They’ve got a name for the winners in the world/I, I want a name when I lose/They call Alabama the Crimson Tide/Call me deacon blues”). “Peg” is another song about a figure with aspirations down on their luck, this time an aspiring actress who ditched her boyfriend for her dreams of stardom. “Black Cow” is about some down on his luck schmuck confessing about his faithless girlfriend. However, this album has more of Steely Dan’s cryptic songwriting on it than albums past, and less of their sardonic wit. The title track is almost impenetrable, it seems impossible to make meaning out of it (although the instrumental break that punctuates the middle of the song is hypnotic). The three closing tracks stand over the end of the album like a riddle, each growing more convoluted than the last. There isn’t much hope of finding a consistent story in any of them, but they’re fun to listen to and the lyrics can provoke a response even when they fail to cohere into a story. An incredible album, I love it. 9/10.

The title track is worth the price of admission. Add "Deacon Blues" and "Peg" to the mix? Amazing. Fantastic album. The players are just fantastic. The drumming on the title track has been so talked about that any comment feels redundant. It's just beautiful.

STTEEELLYYY DANNNN

Music like an ultra high resolution image of a potato. Somehow intriguing, but still potato.

A jazz-rock album which fuses cool jazz, blues, and pop into a masterpiece of an album. The production and mixing are amazing; filling soft melodies with jazzy solos and rich background instrumentals which flow seamlessly with each track. Favorite tracks: Aja, Deacon Blues, Home At Last

I don't know why I thought I liked Steely Dan

Get the yacht sailing… we’re heading to key west for some sunshine and cocktails!

Great Jazz-Pop-Rock fusion album. Very well produced with no filler. So many dynamics and rhythm changes and syncopation throughout, really fun listen. Favourite Tracks: Peg, Deacon Blues, Home at Last

It's technically perfect....Just not that thrilling.

Well prepared, forgettable soup. Didn't hate this. Unfortunately though, it elicited no discernible emotional response beyond apathy. What is music if not to lift the soul? There's some thought behind the lyrics - but the music they're saddled with is so non-descript it's hard to care less. All the nuance is lost in the cloying do-bops and tsch-bop-bops that smother the record like an unremarkable blanket. Probably at one point I've heard snippets of this in a hotel lobby but I don't know because I wouldn't remember it; case in point ended up listening to most of the album twice for the purposes of this because it fused with the background noise on the first occasion. Trying a little harder on the second attempt, the initial chord progressions in the unfathomably beloved Deacon Blues set the scene for a whole bunch of nothing to happen, and as listeners, we're not proved wrong with this assumption. Music should make you feel alive, this is beige soup for beige people with beige lives and beige ambitions who live in beige houses and drive beige cars to beige stores and ask for a manager when they get there because beige products are out of stock. There's a scene. And Steely Dan is playing in the background, naturally. So anyway, it was dull. Maybe one day I'll hear it again and not even know. 1/5

I get that some people just do not like Steely Dan. Heck as a kid when they would come on the radio - and they did, often - I pretty much hated them. Smooth but weird...songs that didn't necessarily have the standard structure I was accustomed to. Then again I was a stupid kid. It's different and I guess that was what i didn't like at the time or freaked me out or whatever, but this is ridiculously-complex and good music. Is/was it pop? rock? fusion? jazz? who knows, probably all of the above and who cares. Can't even pick out a favourite song - literally good from beginning to end but if forced I might pick "Aja" as the unique standout. Also of importance: you just cannot listen to this album through a phone speaker, you've got to put on either earbuds/headphones, or play it through a decent stereo. Without succumbing to boredom about how amazing the studio techniques and worldly session musicians were... if you're listening to this for the first time just make sure you at least give it a chance in this way. It's one of the most celebrated *recordings* of all time for a reason - the clarity and fidelity are pretty much perfect. Jazz rock may not be my favourite subgenre but I'm not sure an album gets much better than this. 9/10 5 stars

Hey, do all of you not know a lot about Steely Dan?

Well produced, well played, just not my cup of tea. It was pleasantly listenable, but that's about it.

Musical beige.

Why

Wank

This is like Revenge of the Nerds but instead of sexual assault they made one of the best (produced) albums of all time

It’s amazing how on paper this band sounds like the most uncool thing, but in practice they’re cool as all fuck.

One of the best-sounding records ever made. Even if lush 70s jazz-rock is not your thing you can marvel at the playing and production. Wayne Shorter's solo, the chorus to Deacon Blues...it's pleasures are endless.

At one point during the title track, I thought to myself, "This one has to be over soon, right?" and when I looked at the elapsed time, it wasn't even halfway done. What a slog. Give me their earlier stuff, but not this. This is yacht rock with extra steps. Best track: Josie

It’s fitting that Steely Dan named themselves after a dildo; their music comes across as a mechanical facsimile, bereft of any humanity due to their obsession with manufacturing perfection.

This is shit

I used to frequent a bar that had bands play on the weekends, often cover bands. When we’d walk in and see it was the Steely Dan cover band that night, we were so disheartened. We hated the songs and thought the band sucked… but in hindsight? They were nailing it.

Steely Dan’s smooth, meticulously crafted songs often find their way into environments where unobtrusive background music is preferred. For example: - A doctors office waiting room - The DMV - An elevator - Super market aisle - Call center hold music - A dentist chair during a root canal - My parents Subaru in the early 90s listening to Memphis’s top smooth rock station FM 100. Truly the sound of purgatory. I wanted to round up because I guess it sounds okay…but if I have to listen to any more of this I might inflict pain on myself.

Steely Dan is the answer to the question: what if we combined jazz and rock and made both worse? And then what if we took that and made it bland AF? And Steely Dan was like, "hold my low calorie beer." Not like this is a BAD album... it simply evokes zero emotion other than feeling like a douche bag while listening. I think of all the albums we've had thus far I would be most embarrassed for my wife to walk in on me listening to this one. Not because it is the worst album of the bunch. But it would be the same as her coming home to me literally watching paint dry or grass grow. Snoooooze. 1.5/5

Insufferable soft rock dreck.

This seems like someone found a reel-to-reel tape of cheesy background instrumentals for grocery stores and decided to lay down some vocal tracks on it. Terrible.

i just really don't like steely dan. the drummer on this album (apparently bernard purdie) was excellent, but i just hate everything else about them.

I mean... Not only is there not one bad song on the album, there are a bunch of absolutely classic bangers.

I don't care how crafty they are. Steely Dan sucks.

I think I thought I used to like them but frankly this album is as musak-ally stale as a 1 wk old loaf of bread. Bored out of my mind. Can’t really find anything redeeming here.

This album was absolutely awful. Matter of fact, it may have completely ruined the saxophone sound for me.

5/5 This album gets off to a real flyer with the absolutely amazing Black Cow, which is lyrically, vocally and instrumentally brilliant. It's structured beautifully, with such an infectious quality that draws you in straight away, and keeps you there. Then Aja, which is at its core so delicate and smooth, yet is unsettled, continually moving forward dramatically and fantastically. Deacon Blues is so inviting and clever, and goes by so fast, closing the first half with elegance. Then the funk kicks in on Peg, a song with groove and glamour. Home at Last feels like a jazz-reggae fusion sent down directly from heaven. So, so good. It's bright and full of life. It would be a favourite on almost any other album. Then I Got The News is fun and groovy, before the experience finishes with Josie. The guitars cut through the song so well, melding with the great bass work. Once again, just a breathtaking track that deserves so much praise. All in all, this is 40 minutes of brilliant songwriting and musical performances that I can't wait to revisit. Black Cow 5/5 (FAV) Aja 5/5 Deacon Blues 5/5 Peg 5/5 Home At Last 5/5 I Got The News 4.5/5 (LEAST FAV) Josie 5/5

One of my all time favorites! Legendary album by a Legendary band

Amazing album. Current favorite song: Black Cow, Josie.

One of the greatest albums of all time.. This one easy.

I looove this record. Lyrics, vocals, instrumentation, pristine recording. If you want to test your audio setup crank Peg at high volume.

Now that's what I'm talking about! I thoroughly enjoyed this album. Steely Dan combines jazz and soft rock so well. Highlights: Black Cow, Peg, Home At Last, I Got The News, Josie

This is my favorite Steely Dan album and one I’ve listened to many times in my life. My Dad used to play it a lot, and it holds up. It’s not my typical type of music, but I really love it.

absolutely fabulous soulful jazz album!

A masterpiece.

Somehow overrated and overlooked at the same time. It’s an exceptional album, one of the best of that decade. But let’s talk about Led Zep IV or Dark Side of the Moon some more please.

5 stars. I think this album is as close to perfect as Steely Dan gets. It has everything I want when I’m looking for something chipper and interesting

Masterpiece

The songs on this album are more homogenous and less adventurous than prior Steely Dan albums but the production, arrangements, and the cast of thousands (including Wayne shorter) who played and sang are brilliant. Full disclosure: I watched the making of Aja on Classic albums (Youtube) a few years ago. For one track they had different studio musicians submit guitar solos and then they picked the best one. Definitely not rock n’ roll.

Love this album. It's nearly perfect.

This one is so good. I’ll stretch to a five

Phenomenal, of course.

One of the finest albums recorded in the 1970's

Beautiful instrumentals, I enjoyed this album very much.

Perfection

I have heard this album before. Listened to it earlier this year and have been meaning to relisten. My initial feelings remain pretty much the same. It’s extremely pleasant to listen to and sounds fantastic… but that’s about all I get out of it. No real emotional connection here for me. Nothing I’m really rushing back to because I liked it so much. But, again, it sounds fantastic and the instrumentation is really great. Love the improvisational moments especially. Definitely get why this album is praised, but there’s just not a ton here for me for whatever reason.

Nr. 50/1001 Black Cow 4/5 Aja 3/5 Deacon Blues 3/5 Peg 4/5 Home At Last 5/5 I Got The News 4/5 Josie 4/5 Average: 3,86 Thorougly enjoyed this record. Super laid back, jazzy and funky.

Incredible playing, but in places, a little too slick. I prefer some of their other albums, but it's still a great listen.

way way way better than i thought. i was prepared for the worst album of my life. had a very nice groove to it

Really talented band but not in a massive rush to hear again. Good to find out where de la soul sample comes from. Once you notice lisp it's in foreground. 6/10

Another proof that complexity and flawlessness doesn't guarantee an enjoyable listen. I mean, it's great; jazz rock fusion, incredible production, nice instrumentals... it's an easy listen. But I don't think I will come back to it. I can see why it's considered awesome, but ultimately, it felt bland as a listen.

The epitome of boomer dad rock. It's fine but safe and never takes risks.

3.1 - I can appreciate its musical complexity and technical prowess but I just don't enjoy this record. I gave it two spins. By most accounts it's a triumph - I've read critical reviews that say this sound is as \"ageless as intelligence.\" Then consider me part of the unwashed masses - I'm not a fan. That jazz-rock combo sounds sterile and smarmy as muzak.

It's a fine album with great sound, flawless production and expert musicianship. Just not the type of music that draws me in. Sometimes sounds like elevator music. 3.5 🌟

Production is pristine. But I'm struggling to describe the vibe. Imagine you're listening to a classic 70s Stevie Wonder album and make it jazzier. But instead of most instruments being played by Stevie and a selection of players he knows intimately, you hire about a hundred session musicians and make them record their parts separately in the driest studio known to man. Instead of Stevie's dynamic, unmistakable voice, you have two guys who would struggle to get a gig doing backing vocals. And instead of lyrics that vividly touch on everything from spiritualism, everyday life, and social issues of the time, you get word-salad abstraction that fails to depict anything other than how clever the writers thought they were. So, Aja is nothing like a Stevie Wonder album... ...bet Steely Dan wished it was, though.

*aging hippy dad voice* Well, i’m gonna go OUTSIDE AND WORK ON THE LAWNMOWER

Definitely not my cup of tea going in. I’m not going to sit here and trash this though for too long, because there are redeeming qualities and Peg is a fantastic groove! The musicianship is beautiful and colorful but ultimately pretty sanitized and divorced from a real cultural center. The songwriting isn’t saying much aside from being a doomer 30-40 something in the late 70s witnessing the rise of Neo-liberal realism and the death of effective counter-culture. It’s cynical like Zappa but without the wild edge. Honestly it’s morose and depressing at times, and the length of the songs and consistent instrumentation defintely makes it feel very samey. With all that being said, the pocket is almost too good on these songs. The solos rip, the harmonies are perfection and the musical aspects of the songwriting are undeniably mature and influential. Its a bit antithetical to rock music but not devoid of meaning or quality. Aside from peg I don’t think I’d through anything into a playlist, as much as I’d like to reclaim yuppy music lol.

Bumbling into a fur-upholstered cocktail party full of manicured types wearing nothing but gold medallions, manicures and animal masks: what a start to the week! This is very smooth and I am totally happy if this is your kind of gig. I can’t hear the tunes for all the smoothness.

The first Steely Dan album I've listened to in full. Sounds like a collection of '70s TV themes. Peg is fun but better when sampled by De La Soul. Seems a bit directionless

Did I just listen to a hotel’s lobby music?

There are some nice ideas on this record, but overall it comes across as a bit drab and boring to me.

very easy listening. solid introduction to yacht rock. not for me. best track - "i got the news"

The only good thing about listening to this is that I now know where the sample on Eye Know by De La Soul came from.

I hated all of this. Most of all why is "Asia" spelt "Aja", you cynically ironic blue-eyed white yacht jazz-rocker motherfuckers?

I hated Steely Dan then and I can’t stand them now. I would yell from the back seat of our Ford Grand Torino wagon to change the radio push button as soon as these songs reared their head, and as an adult I still never got past the first measure without turning the dial. Known for taking forever to record their records while in pursuit of sonic perfection, SD ironically produced pieces of work like Aja that are simply boring as hell. I would expect my rock n roll friends to punch me in the face if they ever heard me listening to this yacht rock drivel. In 1977 there were so many more exciting bands happening from Cheap Trick to The Ramones, The Sex Pistols, Elvis Costello, The Jam, The Police. Hell…too many to name. The single one positive on this album is the bass being provided by Chuck Rainey whose list of albums and artists is also too long to name.

Dude this not…great

This is not a good record. 90% of it is filler. May be a competitor for most dad rock album of all time.

Oh wow. This is so great. I know there are those of you out there who don’t like steely Dan. You’re wrong. And this is the best of them. The arrangements are superb. And the best LA players couple with the best songwriting. Listen to those arrangements. Often dismissed as yacht rock but yacht rock has a mild pleasant feel - life is usually pretty good. Steely Dan is pimps, gangsters, addicts, dodgy characters and cynicism. This is probably the least cynical of the albums, but it is the peak. 5000 stars.

love it

Steely Dan. My choice for best band from the 70’s-80’s. Love their music. Know how to mix all types of music type. This album one of their best.

One of my all time favorites. Jazzy, smart, eclectic.

Loved this album

Overall: 9/10 The generator seems to know that I'm really into Steely Dan right now. This album is much closer to actual jazz than Can't Buy a Thrill was, and in my opinion that's a good thing because it feels more focused and consistent. The crazy amount of perfectionism that went into this album also paid off cause every track is so so good. My biggest complaint would be that a couple tracks are longer than I would like them to be but it's a minor complaint. Such a great album! Fav Song: Peg Least Fav Song: Home at Last

I knew this one already, reminds me of my childhood!

Wow! I really liked the instrumentals and melodies, this was my favorite so far

So many iconic grooves

[note: this review was written in 2021. i have no plans to replace it on RateYourMusic and will simply post the old review here. my opinion remains unchanged.] aja is the culmination of about 5+ years of musical prowess and performance, and is pretty much considered THE dan album that cannot be denied as an ass-kicker. there's a reason audiophiles who care about how FLACs sound and immediately turn a song off if it clips use it as a test for their speakers -- it's one of the most well produced albums of all time. you could pick out each part of a song with a pair of mental chopsticks if you wanted to, with how much space and weight is in the production. however, because i don't know any music theory and very little about how they made it sound like it does, but i know that i love it lyrically, this is the tightest fagen and becker have ever been. the people depicted are pitiable wrecks, as always, but the sentimentality of the music doesnt impress the idea that theyre beyond help. "deacon blues" is the most iconic song here because its a song about how cool it would be to do a sick ass sax solo and drink in lounges, despite the narrator very clearly just being that guy who says hes gonna learn guitar and buys a martin but has never really played it and just uses it as a conversation piece. "black cow", "peg", and "josie" can be categorized as "songs about women", but the songs are less "why aren't you fucking me any more" and more "what the hell is wrong with you, why are you like this". "home at last" and "i got the news" are considered the worst tracks, but theyre still crazy good, and shout out to the part of the chorus michael mcdonald sings. finally, the title track is this beautiful suite that pretty much serves as a tribute to charlie parker and the jazz that inspired SD throughout the years, and honestly? its kind of heartwarming, and despite illustrating a scene of where parker was institutionalized, it sort of feels like an uncharacteristic love song -- not of romance, but of admiration for the art of music and the struggles artists go through to "get it right". i think they did their job here, and did it well

I remember the hits off this album, but I didn’t appreciate them much at the time. Mainly because I was a kid. I’m not sure children can fully appreciate the music of Steely Dan. As an adult and, I like to think, as a more mature connoisseur of music, I very much appreciate Steely Dan. And this album is a gem. https://open.substack.com/pub/richcain/p/project-1001-aja-by-steely-dan?r=4ztyq&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false

Steely Dan's best album. Smooth and sonorous

An exquisitely crafted album, one of my favourites and the album that got me into Steely Dan. Becker and Fagen employ the cream of the session music world - Larry Carlton, Joe Sample, Chuck Rainey, Steve Gadd, Bernard Purdie - and combine them into as many groups as there are uniformly excellent songs. It’s all superb but highlights include Wayne Shorter’s solo over Gadd’s subtle drum patterns on the title track, and one of the most incredible guitar solos in popular music, in Peg, a masterclass by Jay Grayson, who was allegedly the 11th guitar player to give it a go. What a great album to start with.

In the end, we all become our own "crazy uncle deeply into Steely Dan". Studio perfection.

5/5

Very solid Dan. The only dip on the whole album is I Got The News, and that's better than 90% of other music. Yes, people get weirded by Steely Dan for some reason -- but that mellow cynicism is a life preserver right now. "Unexpected" banger -- Home at Last

Can it be too damn smooth? Nah

coming from a background in jazz and classical music, Steely Dan represents my platonic ideal of what a pop rock band can be. it's rare to come across rock albums this polished that still feel so vibrant and alive. a lot of yarn has been spun about the many session musicians and arrangers that worked to bring these songs to life, but my ear is always most drawn to the songs themselves. I've stolen a ton of chord progressions from them over the years, intentionally or otherwise! Walter Becker and Donald Fagen owe a tremendous debt as songwriters to the harmonic innovations of Wayne Shorter; there's a ton of Shorter-esque weaving in and out of different tonal centers across all of these songs, and Shorter's solo spot on the title track is one of the most exciting crossover moments in the histories of both jazz and rock music. I like the B-side quite a bit, but this has to be the most perfect A-side in the entire yacht rock canon, right? strong 9/10.

You done it! You done hired the hit maker Bernard 'Pretty' Purdie! Indeed they did and the drumming is immaculate. The Purdie Shuffle rules. Don't worry about those ghost notes! AIN'T NOTHING BUT REBOUND! This is probably as diametrically opposed to Big Blank's Atomizer as you can get but its wrapped back around to great anyway. Pristine playing, clear production, even a tight compact album at 39 minutes.

Day 63 - November 11th, 2024 Proud parent of a Steely Dan dick rider!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 5/5