Definitely a level above the previous ones. I don't know all of the previous albums by heart, but to my ear, songs like Bad Sneakers and Dr. Wu might fit in on Aja. Dr. Wu's a little less known song probably, but the chorus is just so good (1:00).
I meant that in the sense that I’ve never talked to anyone who was a Steely Dan in the 1977. I feel like Aja’s release would be mind blowing.
Honestly, I can’t prove you wrong. But I also think you can make a solid argument for a number of songs on The Royal Scam; while Aja has a clear hierarchy of Black Cow>Peg>Home at Last>Aja>Josie>Deacon Blues>I Got The News* Which begs the question, is The Royal Scam their best album? *all but top 3 subject to change based on many unquantifiable variables I’m contemplating joining Twitter because of that tweet
Rolling Stone interviewed the guy behind the Steely Dan Takes Twitter account and he made some great points about the band in general, specifically how classic rock radio plays theee songs by an artist and those are that artist’s best three songs, whereas everything they play by Steely Dan is from Can’t Buy A Thrill and they obviously have much better works (CBAT still rocks)
That Rolling Stone article is what led me to that tweet. Couldn’t even finish the article; had to watch the video like 30 times and then ran over here to share it with the 10 other TMB intellectuals
Yeah but you have the ten of us itt to keep you relatively sane so that you don’t drink scotch whiskey all night long and die behind the wheel
It would tough to rank the songs on Aja for me. The songs in the top 2 groups could switch places and still work for me. Aja Peg Home at Last Deacon Blues Brown Cow Josie I Got the News
I’d have Josie in the second grouping and Deacon Blues in the top two. But the good thing about Aja is that there aren’t really wrong answers.
I was later to the party on The Royal Scam than the other albums, so have been listening/enjoying that the most over the past year. Not as airtight as Aja, but the back half of that record is so good. Really The Fez through the title track.
Me and a friend were talking about Cant Buy A Thrill a couple days ago and how Dirty Work is an underappreciated jam.