Revisiting 'Aja'
Wednesday, May 29, 2019 at 12:01AM The past few days I’ve come across some discussion of Steely Dan online. The arguments usually go like this:
Nameless internet troll one: Steely Dan is the best band of all time.
Nameless internet troll two: No man, they suck. Every song is terrible.
Nameless internet toll one: Explain Aja then.
Nameless internet troll two: Ok that was a good album.
Usually when Aja comes up, folks are solidly in one of two camps: love or hate. Plenty have said Aja is the best album of all time. I wouldn’t go that far. The thing is an engineering marvel, though.
Steely Dan - Aja (Remastered)
Rolling Stone rates Aja as #145 in their list of the top 500 best albums of all time. The album earns that spot for “Deacon Blues” alone.
The thing about Aja that always struck me is this: it’s just 7 tracks. People gave Bruno Mars crap for his last album that was only 9 songs, but every one of those tracks was pretty meticulously crafted too. I think there is something to be said for a shorter album full of really good music versus a ton of filler everyone always skips.
Maybe we need more Aja-like albums in our lives these days. Plus these warnings: “Drink scotch whiskey all night long and die behind the wheel.” So agree or not: shorter is better?
Reader Comments (9)
but i will comment on shorter is better. while i agree in principle that a better crafted album is more enjoyable regardless of the number of tracks, some albums suffer from too much crafting. dream theater hit that wall trying to cram more into less (“train of thought” is a great example, 7 songs, 78 minutes). on the other hand, if you took the 7 best ramones songs and put them onto an album i would feel shafted because it would be better than any 18 minute dream theater song - but also shorter.
i guess it just depends on the material.
That tells you what i think about this "band".
"These are the same people who sort their garbage, jog with their dogs, and listen to Steely Dan. You just like to take them out deep in the forest and disembowel them with a wooden cooking spoon."
When you start getting into prog or doom/stoner (longer) or punk (shorter) the parameters change.
But I don't need 12-18 songs for an album.
Actually, it's more about (for me) album length than number of songs or song length. 38 to 52 minutes is optimal. Of course there are outliers, mostly on the longer side.
As far as Steely Dan goes, good musicians, I like some of their stuff, not really my jam. I like what I like, everyone else should do the same.
I resoundingly disagree and humbly submit “Royal Scam”, the album released before “Aja”, as the apex of Steely Dan’s canon with “Can’t Buy a Thrill”, their first album (where you’ll find their best song, “Do It Again”) close behind, along with their 2nd, 3rd and 4th albums, “Countdown to Ecstasy”, “Pretzel Logic” and “Katie Lied”, respectively.
And in line with Shawn’s comments on Jeff “Skunk” Baxter, huge credit goes to him for making Steely Dan’s songs absolutely glitter with his ingenious layers of guitar and killer solos. Just listen to him torch every track on “The Royal Scam”. Man, he just burns!