Aja ⭐Steely Dan

Steely Dan hadn’t been a real working band since ‘Pretzel Logic’, but with ‘Aja’, Walter Becker and Donald Fagen’s obsession with sonic detail and fascination with composition reached new heights. A coolly textured and immaculately produced collection of sophisticated jazz-rock, ‘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. But ‘Aja’ isn’t just about texture, since Becker and Fagen’s songs are their most complex and musically rich set of songs – even the simplest song, the sunny pop of “Peg,” has layers of jazzy vocal harmonies. In fact, Steely Dan ignores rock on ‘Aja’, preferring to fuse cool jazz, blues, and pop together in a seamless, seductive fashion. It’s complex music delivered with ease, and although the duo’s preoccupation with clean sound and self-consciously sophisticated arrangements would eventually lead to a dead end, ‘Aja’ is a shining example of jazz-rock at its finest. – Stephen Thomas Erlewine, AllMusic