I’ve probably listened to over 10,000 albums in my lifetime. Some albums resonate with me on a visceral level. R.E.M.’s Automatic for the People, for example, expresses life’s deepest mysteries, at least to me. As commercial albums go, it sounds decent—certainly acceptable as a major label recording. Failure’s Fantastic Planet fascinates me on an intellectual level. It’s lyrics have a one of a kind space rock/James Joyce stream of consciousness thing that I haven’t experienced with any other album I’ve heard. It too sounds quite good. But, there’s one album that I now recognize for its meticulous production. That album is Aja by Steely Dan. 

Produced by Gary Katz and released on September 23, 1977, Aja topped the U.S. albums chart and was one of the first albums to be certified platinum, having sold well over two million copies to date. Aja contains the singles “Peg,” “Deacon Blues,” and “Josie” as well as a notable saxophone solo on the title track from Miles Davis alumnus Wayne Shorter. 

Having not listened to a lot of Steely Dan, my first impression of Aja was two fold. First, I thought the lyrics and vocal phrasing were quite odd at times. Lyrically, “[i]n the corner of my eye/I saw you in Rudy’s/You were very high . . .it’s over now/Drink your big black cow/And get out of here,” opens the album. The title track contains odd extensions of the long and short “a” sounds on the phrase “Aja.” Couched inside crystal clear production, these anomalies, I found, drew me in closer to the album. A lesser quality recording may have pushed me away. It’s the confluence of oddity and sonic perfection that makes the album a compelling listen on each and every spin.