Day 91 (Throwback Thursday): Steely Dan — Aja
Steely Dan is (was?) a band named after a strap-on that featured in William S. Burroughs’ Naked Lunch. That has very little to do with the group’s 1977 album Aja, but as someone who’s experience with Steely Dan was pretty much limited to binging on “Reelin’ in the Years” and saying “ohhhh” in the middle of reading Burroughs’ seminal beat novel about doing heroin in another dimension (or something), it’s an outsized frame of reference.
Naturally, the passing of founding member Walter Becker back in September has turned Q4 of 2017 into a big time for Steely Dan reappraisal, so I couldn’t resist the urge to dive into the discography of a group who were held in higher esteem by musicians ranging from Mark Ronson to Mac Demarco than I had previously estimated.
As a neophyte with no real context through which to understand Aja, there’s no doubt that the record can sound at least a little campy to modern, untrained ears. “Black Cow” hits listeners right off the bat with the signature sounds of seventies sleaze, as a swooning horn section and scuzzy electric piano help set up a seedy New York cene. It certainly doesn’t conform with my incredibly narrow notion of what a Steely Dan song is supposed to sound like, but it’s hard to deny that it (along with the rest of the album) sounds incredibly polished and well-mixed given that the album’s old enough to be a dad that yells at youth sports referees.
I get the sense now that part of Steely Dan’s appeal stems from the fact that they were notoriously hard to pin down, and what I hear on Aja certainly confirms that Becker and Fagen’s project contained multitudes. There are insinuations of everything from prog to jazz to disco, yet it feels like I’m hearing none of those things at the same time. It exudes “easy listening” vibes, and yet the record isn’t without its moments of musical complexity. Becker was a talented guitarist who knows how to sprinkle in solos here and there to keep things interesting, which is crucial here given that the songs have an occasional tendency to blur together stylistically.
That’s not to say that Aja is bad, it just probably isn’t for me. At least not right now. I never felt like there was some gaping hole in my life that Steely Dan was designed to fill, and while ‘Dan Stans(TM) tend to cite this one as their favorite, I’ll just have to take their word about what makes this one so special. If anything, today was a useful reminder of how different music resonates with different audiences, and that it’s selfish to assume that everything was made to please your ears. Sometimes you’re just not gonna get what the big deal is. And when it comes to harmless slices of pop culture like Steely Dan, that’s probably okay.
Ultimately, I’m just not on the same level as Gil Faizon and George St. Geegland when it comes to my Aja appreciation. I’ll try my best to eat more tuna in 2018 to see if things change.
This is Day 91 in my 100 albums in 100 days series, where I review a new album or EP I haven’t heard in full before every day through December 31st. Check out yesterday’s post or see the full archives for more.
