Amazon.co.jp
77年に発表され、洗練の極みの彼らの最高傑作。前作『幻想の摩天楼』からオリジナルメンバーは、ドナルド・フェイゲンとウォルター・ベッカーの2人だけになってしまった。そんな彼らに超腕利きゲストミュージシャンを加えて制作された、極上の都市型音楽アルバム。
おなじみのエンジニアのロジャー・ニコルズとプロデューサーのゲイリー・カッツの頭脳陣に、ラリー・カールトン、リー・リトナー、チャック・レイニー、ジョー・サンプル、スティーブ・ガッド、バーナード・パーディらが参加。リラックスして聴き流してよし、じっくり聴き込んでもよし。（麻路 稔）
From Amazon.co.uk
History gives Steely Dan's Walter Becker and Donald Fagen the last, hearty laugh on this, the crown jewel in their remarkable canon of 1970s Mensa-pop. Sneaking onto the charts a half-decade earlier with sinuous, jazz-inflected "rock", the dysfunctional duo's acerbic, anti-heroic visions had been critically lauded for their band identity and killer guitar riffs, then promptly challenged when the two songwriters retired from the road, dissolved any formal band lineup, and used the studio as laboratory.
Aja carried the added indignity of its increased focus on sophisticated jazz models and musicianship, which carried the Dan's ambitions even further in terms of suave harmonies, intricate song structures, and brilliant playing. Time has proven them wiser than their rock crit detractors: These seven songs abound in knotty plots, sneaky imagery, and drop-dead brilliant performances from a blue chip studio repertory studded with first-call jazz players epitomised by Wayne Shorter's towering solo on the title song. From the hard-boiled jazz romance of "Deacon Blues" to the twisted Homeric vamp of "Home at Last", the veiled but ominous swing of "Peg" to the sci-fi eroticism of "Josie",
Aja is a modern pop classic and the coolest fusion record no one ever thought to lump in that category.
--Sam Sutherland
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