I decided to spend the week taking a break from cramming for the Album of the Year list to instead cram some Steely Dan, having realised that the only album of theirs I really listen to is Can't Buy a Thrill. I hadn't realised that was their debut album and what a great debut it is.
My brother used to have a few of their other albums but I don't recall taking much notice of them although I did have a couple of singles in Ricki Don't Lose That Number and Haitian Divorce, which I'd always considered a bit of a novelty record but loved it all the same. B side was Sign in Stranger and those three tracks often find their way on to the odd playlist along with tracks from Thrill.
As an aside, it always intrigues me on Can't Buy a Thrill that the format seemed to be top launch into a chorus after one verse of songs, my usual reckoning would be a couple of verses first. Maybe I'm wrong on that.
Anyway, it's been a fairly fruitful week. I can add Pretzel Logic and Royal Scam to can't Buy a Thrill as albums I'll definitely return to. Less so Katy Lied and Countdown to Ecstasy which I found a bit lacking. Interestingly when I look at the chronological order of releases it's good, meh, good, meh, good, Aja...
So would Aja buck the trend. I mentioned early doors that I had previously found it dull and to be fair Foggy agreed with me. But rather like being sat opposite the work dullard at the Christmas meal I did have to engage with it this week. Was my further exploration of Steely Dan albums a sort of excuse to not listen to this or being such a fan of Can't Buy a Thrill an attempt to find some conciliatory words? Fuck knows, I'm not my own psychologist.
Anyway, to the point. I get what people say and think back to
@mrbelfry review when he said this album "revealed itself to him". The best albums often do.
This album is ideal for some of the moods and fancies I get. You could argue that in some respects nothing really happens. And being less tuned in to the production and musical mastery than others I can't gush over how perfect it is. But the nothing much that happens happens in a very effective way. I think. Like passing a pleasant evening with friends drinking wine and chatting, just chatting, not homing in on the big issues screwing the world and the potential life threatening illnesses hiding in the corners. In fact when you look back you'd be hard pressed to know what you did talk about. But it was a just right night...
There was a slightly discordant note, or rather a series of notes as the title track moved towards it's climax and frankly was a bit noisy. It reminded me at that point of the terrible incidental music you used to get in 80s movies. But overall, this is smooth and it's rather great now that I have properly let it work it's way in. So, that's four albums of Steely dan that I'll listen to and this, although very different vies with can't Buy a Thrill for the top spot. It's the sort of thing I can see me listening to as I cruise down the M6 to Wembley on a sunny day in May... but obviously will listen to it again before then. A solid 8
