Revisiting 'Aja'

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?