Aja by Steely Dan is the greatest album ever made by anyone. Yes, I know that everyone has their own musical tastes and thinks their favourite artist is the best but trust me, Aja really is the best.
I was just messaging a special friend – and this will give the game away to some – whose favourite band is Deacon Blue. Deacon Blues is one of the truly great songs on that record – actually all seven songs are truly great, but still – and, wonderfully, the lyrics are about a midlife crisis. Not obviously, but read them a few times and it becomes clear.
It is my most listened to album in the 41 years since it was released and it never dates, I never grow tired of it. And the title track, Aja, I have gradually concluded over pretty well over those long 41 years, is my favourite piece of music ever, better than the Steve Desper remix of the Beach Boys ‘Til I Die and – oh, wait a minute – on equal terms with Since I Left You by the Avalanches, which remains the nearest thing to a musical orgasm anyone could ever experience.
Some of the greatest musicians who ever lived play on Aja the album, from Wayne Shorter to Bernard ‘Pretty’ Purdie, and you even get the Eagles’ Timothy B Schmit and Michael McDonald employed just to sing backing vocals.
You need this record, like you need Revolver, like you need Pet Sounds, like you need every other Steely Dan record. But you must buy it, don’t stream it.
Don’t take my word for it: read this excerpt from wikipedia (so it must be true) where Ian Dury, without his Blockheads, has to say about it.
“Well, Aja’s got a sound that lifts your heart up.. and it’s the most consistent up-full, heart-warming.. even though, it is a classic LA kinda sound. You wouldn’t think it was recorded anywhere else in the world. It’s got California through its blood, even though they are boys from New York… It’s a record that sends my spirits up, and really when I listen to music, really that’s what I want.”
Analyzing the band’s songwriting style, Dury said: “They’ve got a skill that can make images that aren’t puerile and don’t make you think you’ve heard it before… very ‘Hollywood filmic’ in a way, the imagery is very imaginable, in a visual sense.” Dury said of their musical style: “Parker, Mingus, Blakey, I can hear in there… Jazz Messengers I can hear in there, Bobby Timmons… the subject matter doesn’t matter, it’s the sound they’re making.”
