Aja |
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Released: September 23, 1977 Peak: 3 US, 5 UK, 3 CN, 9 AU Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): 2.0 US, 0.1 UK, 5.0 world (includes US and UK) Genre: jazz rock |
Tracks:Song Title [time] (date of single release, chart peaks)
All tracks written by Walter Becker and Donald Fagen. Total Running Time: 39:54 The Players:
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Rating: 4.366 out of 5.00 (average of 27 ratings)
Quotable:“A shining example of jazz-rock at its finest” – Stephen Thomas Erlewine, AllMusic.comAwards:(Click on award to learn more).
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Not the Typical Rock Band“Steely Dan is not your typical rock band.” TB They formed “as a reaction against the huge-selling soft-rock groups of the era” TB and their “albums stood apart from most of their contemporaries.” TB They “initially operate[d] within the confines of the traditional rock band, recording and touring the albums Can’t Buy a Thrill (1972) and Countdown to Ecstasy (1973) with a permanent drummer, guitarist, and vocalist.” TBHowever, primary members Donald Fagen and Walter Becker “became disillusioned with that line-up and with life on the road.” TB Over the next few albums, they started to “draw on a pool of impressive session musicians” TB instead of relying on the five-piece band format, which allowed Fagen and Becker “to concentrate exclusively on studio work” TB “in their attempts to produce the slickest, most densely layered recordings possible.” TB The Group’s PeakSteely Dan albums “were always immaculately produced and full of musical complexity” TB but on their sixth album, Aja, Becker and Fagen’s “obsession with sonic detail and fascination with composition reached new heights.” AM The album “captures the group at its official and commercial peak.” TB It “is one of the most impressive feats of musical excellence this world has seen – a spectacular display” PM “of sophisticated jazz-rock,” AM “a shining example of jazz-rock at its finest.” AM The album fuses “cool jazz, blues, and pop together in a seamless, seductive fashion.” AM“Aja has none of the overt cynicism or self-consciously challenging music that distinguished previous Steely Dan records. Instead, it’s a measured and textured album, filled with subtle melodies and accomplished, jazzy solos that blend easily into the lush instrumental backdrops.” AM “Embedded within these tunes are chord sequences more demanding than you’ll find in most jazz.” TM This is “complex music delivered with ease.” AM It is “a coolly textured and immaculately produced collection” AM which “never hits a wrong note.” PM The Songs“Aja isn’t just about texture, since Becker and Fagen’s songs are their most complex and musically rich set of songs.” AM “The duo penned moving vignettes of love, aspiration and dejection.” PM The album “perfectly utilized the services of over 40 acclaimed musicians and was gorgeously produced by Gary Katz.” PM “Where Steely Dan’s earlier works had been mostly guitar based, on Aja the songs are led by swathes of keyboards and saxophones.” TB“Black Cow sets the mood – metropolitan and wry, it tells the story of a cheated-on lover who finally loses patience. Victor Feldman’s Fender Rhodes solo is a deft delight, while elegantly syncopated horns ride the bop to the end with impeccable class.” RD “The title track is a different proposition – a tone poem to the mystique of the Orient, which broadens into philosophical reverie, ‘Aja’ is the album’s center of gravity. The song builds a delicate, opium-tinged world, then destroys it in Steve Gadd’s shattering drum finale, while Wayne Shorter cries murder on tenor sax.” RD Even the album’s simplest song, “the sunny pop of Peg, has layers of jazzy vocal harmonies.” AM That song and Josie, “a slick homecoming boogie,” RD were both top 40 hits, as was Deacon Blues, a “swan song for an aging L.A. hipster, as tender as it is bleakly humorous.” RD
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First posted 4/3/2008; last updated 8/27/2026. |
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