Best Steely Dan Album

Music Room
1
  • Can’t Buy A Thrill
  • Countdown To Ecstasy
  • Pretzel Logic
  • Katy Lied
  • The Royal Scam
  • Aja
  • Gaucho
  • Two Against Nature
  • Everything Must Go
0 voters

Guys,

Please vote as you wish, commentary welcome of course.

Best regards,

Lindsay

1 Like
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Can’t Buy A Thrill for me by a long margin. It is one of very those rare albums ( along with Supertramp’s Crime Of The Century) where every song is top notch. I still play it from time to time.

I find Aja overrated and Katy Lied underrated. Pretzel Logic, is another good one.

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Aja for me , however I don’t think there’s a bad album in the collection

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4

No button for “all of the above”
Martin

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5

I was just thinking the same thing :grinning_face:

At least let us pick more than one!!

Royal Scam or Katy Lied for me.

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Favourite child?

If you can find them I thoroughly recommend the MCLD CD pressings. Aja is mastered by Steve Hoffman too. They all sound superb.

G

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7

Back when I was 15, the Dan were my favourite band, and I still love their music today. My favourite has to be Katy Lied, though all the early ones are brilliant. I’m less keen on the post- Aja output, and apart from the wonderful Haitian Divorce, the Royal Scam is a bit dull and embittered. It may well be Pretzel Logic that started my decades long love of jazz.

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8

I can see this thread ending up needing popcorn.

Also, controversially, I don’t have a favourite album, just favourite songs scattered across a few albums.

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The first, Can’t Buy A Thrill. By a country mile. One of the greatest ‘first albums’ ever recorded.

After that, it all went rather pretentious IMHO.

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Both of my faves and still have them on original vinyl. :+1:

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Aja is my preferred choice but the point about stand out tracks, just love Gaucho and the Carlton solo on Third World Man.

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Can’t really pick a favourite as I enjoy them all, but at a push I would say Aja. The two official Live recordings are very good too.

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I think he’s doing it as a school project.

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Love each and every one and all the solo output from both (OK, WB’s is patchy but has moments) … but have to admit I can’t stand Reelin’ .. probably the only track I find competely tedious including the famed solo. Sorry chaps.

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Never understood the appeal of this band; I tried with Gaucho and a best of … I’ll give aja ago to see what I’m missing.

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I’m both surprised and not surprised at the same time to see Aja at the top of the list. Yes, the quintessential audiophile recording (which might explain why it’s at the top) but a real snoozer of an album. Literally, I’ve fallen asleep to it. It does sound great though and is fantastic background listening.

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If I had to rescue just one from a fire I reckon it would be the US Greatest Hits double album (RL Masterdisk cut issue) from '78. Not only do you get a great selection of SD’s best output, including the excellent “Here At The Western World”, but it’s also probably the best sounding way to hear it all too.

12 Likes
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A mention for the “Gold” compilation which includes “Western World” (good shout Richard) and also “FM”, “Century’s End”, and “True Companion” which justify double ownership of its other tracks.

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In a similar fashion, my favourite album is my ‘greatest hits’ compilation still largely compiled from my first SD purchase, a UK greatest hits compilation double album I bought in 1980/81.

This was originally a cassette for the car, which became a CD later on & has been on my cars hard drive since 2013. It is probably my most played album, certainly in the car, & if on when non- music passengers are being carried, often elisites the comment ‘this is good, what is it?’.

The appeal of Dan for me is that I find so many of their tracks memorable after the first listen rather than having to play several times before the melodies get fixed in the mind.

Due to the way I discovered them I suppose it is the earlier albums that have most appeal for me but I can easily listen to any of the albums, not disliking any of them.

By the way Richard, around the mid 1970’s, when I still lived in Maidstone, I had a long spell going to The Red Cow at Golden Green (near Tonbridge) on a Friday night. It had a big local reputation for live music. Very often there was a three piece band playing who were big SD fans & played a couple of excellent covers of the early Dan material. I was never able to confirm the rumours that the guitarist was the touring guitarist for Hot Chocolate.

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Like many, It is not so easy to rank Steely Dan albums but at the moment (it may change in a day or two) I choose Aja. There is not really a bad one in the set. Two against Nature is not my favourite but still enjoyable but I think they went too far on this one with manipulating the recording of instruments to exactly time them digitally. In a way it is too perfect.

2 Likes