OTHER TECH

50. Steely Dan: Aja. ABC; MCA

Whither Steely Dan? (Spolier Alert in case you haven't seen the actual Top 50 list yet!) I think an embarrassment of riches did them in re: not appearing on the big list. I mean, how do you choose amongst Pretzel Logic, Katy Lied, and my personal favorite, Aja? True, while other artists had multiple entries on the big list, I believe that most of the S&V critics who voted for them felt compelled to choose just one SD album apiece, thus gutting the band's overall chances.

Actually, 1977's Aja makes the most sense to me. It's the perfect mesh of sonic sophistication and savvy songwriting, all of it performed by top-notch studio players at the height of their respective games. Aja is the quintessential '70s L.A. album - one that in fact lyrically pines for New York, but I digress - and, frankly, it's an audiophile's dream (which, in and of itself, should have qualified it for our list). I've often used Aja to demo both home systems and car stereo systems. My favorite moments occur during the solo section where Wayne Shorter's tenor-sax bursts play off Steve Gadd's ever-more-explosive drumming before the song "settles" back into its groove. Beautiful. Make sure to listen for the crystalline triangle hits that pan across the soundstage throughout the song.

IMO, the best way to hear this one is via Cisco Music's limited-edition 180-gram 30th anniversary 2007 reissue LP. Of course, I'd love to hear it in surround sound someday. . .

. . . though that may not be possible. Walter Becker told me in a January 2005 interview that the master tapes are lost - something later confirmed to me by engineer/producer Elliot Scheiner, who said he'd jump at the chance to do this one in surround. If you know of the whereabouts of those tapes, contact us. (Seriously!)

Oh well. At least 1980's Gaucho made the cut on our Top 10 Multichannel-Music Discs [a.k.a. Surround] list.

And now, to the rest of my list. Over the next few weeks I will be adding detailed comments to each entry, so please check back - and feel free to let me know what you think of my tally, as well as the overall S&V List.