The Album Review Club - Week #196 (page 1316) - Aja - Steely Dan

RobMCFC said:
I hope everybody had a good Christmas break and is ready to get their teeth stuck into some new album nominations.

Kicking off 2025 is @Coatigan. Whenever you are ready with the clues, sir.
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This is about the time our American members are up, so here go the clues.

All in there.

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You are both looking at the right bits. And one has almost the right fruit, which is more than half the battle.

*cue an is it a fruit or a vegetable debate.
 
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threespires said:
Edit: Just seen Rob's accurate identification of the papaya and now I feel like a poorly educated fool.
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I didn't say which one of you, did I?

In fairness I did not know the fruit/vegetable went by that name, till google and google images told me. But there is also nothing else I could think of as a clue to the word, other than a side minor Gotham villain chinese mob boss in the Christian Bale Batman film, that would be even more obscure.
 
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I love this album in January. Or sometimes at spring.

There is a certain 'thaw' feeling to it, of things slowly waking back to life after a previous year or winter, with big bursts of excitement here and there. So given it is January, we had a break, and I happen to coincide with kicking us off, it is my gut choice for a feeling of a fresh start - even though it is technically mid round.

Things I love about it. The sheer intensity and the energy in some of the segments. The pace, at both ends of the scale, they don't hold back in slowing it right down akd indulging in that, or speeding it up to the max. The nerve to dare keep you waiting, as they build up to something coming. And then the balls to deliver on it. The use of repetition. While I know that to some that my feel like songs 'dragging on', to me it is a hook that draws me in through peaks and troths. Just the general basic feeling that they are doing what they feel like, enjoying it, and the music is an expression of that rather than necessarily following convention. Horizontigo probably being the one song that does all of the above.

A bit about the band, they are made up of Orcadian Kris Drever, Isle of Mull(ish)'s Aidan O'Rourke, and English Martin (Green). And they are not named after the random fruit, but the Orcadian word for natural light. As a band they have 5 albums I think but collectively as musicians, probably pushing 30 across various individual endeavours and collaborations. They are a big part of 'the scene' and have made some big contributions to significant works.

A few listening notes. Won't be everyone's cup of tea I get that, and if people will skip, I would rather they took half or a third of the album and listened to entire songs, then cut them and caught snippets of all. Enjoy what you can.
 
Coatigan said:
Bingo. How did you get to it in the end?
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The Dark Knight reference and once it was Lau the rest was obvious as I've listened to this multiple times after your recommendation.

Great choice to shake us out of our post Christmas torpor whilst still fitting in with season. Never been too sure about Dear Prudence but it'll be scoring well from me.
 
Coatigan said:
I love this album in January. Or sometimes at spring.

There is a certain 'thaw' feeling to it, of things slowly waking back to life after a previous year or winter, with big bursts of excitement here and there. So given it is January, we had a break, and I happen to coincide with kicking us off, it is my gut choice for a feeling of a fresh start - even though it is technically mid round.

Things I love about it. The sheer intensity and the energy in some of the segments. The pace, at both ends of the scale, they don't hold back in slowing it right down akd indulging in that, or speeding it up to the max. The nerve to dare keep you waiting, as they build up to something coming. And then the balls to deliver on it. The use of repetition. While I know that to some that my feel like songs 'dragging on', to me it is a hook that draws me in through peaks and troths. Just the general basic feeling that they are doing what they feel like, enjoying it, and the music is an expression of that rather than necessarily following convention. Horizontigo probably being the one song that does all of the above.

A bit about the band, they are made up of Orcadian Kris Drever, Isle of Mull(ish)'s Aidan O'Rourke, and English Martin (Green). And they are not named after the random fruit, but the Orcadian word for natural light. As a band they have 5 albums I think but collectively as musicians, probably pushing 30 across various individual endeavours and collaborations. They are a big part of 'the scene' and have made some big contributions to significant works.

A few listening notes. Won't be everyone's cup of tea I get that, and if people will skip, I would rather they took half or a third of the album and listened to entire songs, then cut them and caught snippets of all. Enjoy what you can.
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Good stuff. I've enjoyed the sound of this band when you've nominated tracks in the playlist thread, so it'll be good to give a full album a listen.
 
threespires said:
The Dark Knight reference and once it was Lau the rest was obvious as I've listened to this multiple times after your recommendation.

Great choice to shake us out of our post Christmas torpor whilst still fitting in with season. Never been too sure about Dear Prudence but it'll be scoring well from me.
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Yeah that song is a bit gash. I get what they were trying to do, but luckily it is fairly insignificant to the album.

Next time I'll think of more easily googlable parts of a clue. But not too easy, like that time I added cliff richard onto a biro thinking this takes some fan knowledge, and Rob got a direct hit in 12 seconds!
 
Coatigan said:
Yeah that song is a bit gash. I get what they were trying to do, but luckily it is fairly insignificant to the album.

Next time I'll think of more easily googlable parts of a clue. But not too easy, like that time I added cliff richard onto a biro thinking this takes some fan knowledge, and Rob got a direct hit in 12 seconds!
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It's a bonus track anyway so Temple of Fiddes can legitimately be considered the end of the album and a much better ending it is. I think as an album for January you've got this spot on, some tracks like Stephen's could have been written with this time of year in mind, it's not got the cohesiveness of something written as explicitly as say The Four Seasons but in it's own way it's just as evocative.

This album also has a musical clue in it to the artists I've got lined up for my next nomination, never been sure if it's an explicit nod in their direction or not but given Lau's background I wouldn't be surprised if it was.

I assume you photoshop your clues yourself - you're not dabbling with AI generated images?
 
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threespires said:
It's a bonus track anyway so Temple of Fiddes can legitimately be considered the end of the album and a much better ending it is. I think as an album for January you've got this spot on, some tracks like Stephen's could have been written with this time of year in mind, it's not got the cohesiveness of something written as explicitly as say The Four Seasons but in it's own way it's just as evocative.

This album also has a musical clue in it to the artists I've got lined up for my next nomination, never been sure if it's an explicit nod in their direction or not but given Lau's background I wouldn't be surprised if it was.

I assume you photoshop your clues yourself - you're not dabbling with AI generated images?
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Agree, we usually discard bonus tracks ;).

You have got me intrigued with your penultimate paragraph.

I have dabbled here and there, still need convinced.
 
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Having seen them play some/many years ago - probably around the time this album came out - I fully agree that each tune should be played in full. Some can feel a bit cold and dark, from memory, and sometimes they specifically play in a discordant manner.
 
threespires said:
The Dark Knight reference and once it was Lau the rest was obvious as I've listened to this multiple times after your recommendation.

Great choice to shake us out of our post Christmas torpor whilst still fitting in with season. Never been too sure about Dear Prudence but it'll be scoring well from me.
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Where Dear Prudence is concerned I've always liked the Souixsie and the Banshees version but then I'm an old punk. It'll be interesting to hear a folk music take.
 
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