Play the whole album - Aja

If you have a Spotify account or any other music streaming service that lets you listen to entire albums in one go, I've got some homework for you.

You've been exposed to some epic albums that you may have heard the odd song from, on the radio, or shuffled up in your streaming playlist, but you really need to sit down and listen to the whole album from front to back. These are my recommendations.

Steely Dan - Aja

If you are, or know a person who has ever said "jazz is boring", or "jazz is high-brow", or "I can't connect with jazz", I propose that you try a different kind of jazz. And if you're willing to do that, allow me to propose the album that should be your starting point.

Aja, Steely Dan's 6th studio album. It's not typical jazz. It's not rock. It's not pop. It's not soul. It's all of these things in a savoury stir fry. 

Black Cow, the opening salvo is this thumping funk number that shows you how delicious unpredictable chord changes can be in the right hands. Walter Becker and Donald Fagen have always known how to find the perfect session players to bring their compositions to life, and this album is no exception. Horns? Oh yeah. Sax? You bet. Great backup singers? Of course. And a groovy keyboard solo to boot. A nice appetizer.

Then we dive deep into the title track, Aja. One of the longest pieces the duo has ever recorded, it features one of the most famous sax and drum solos in the history of rock. There's even a vocal contribution by Timothy B Schmidt. The outro includes yet another drum solo. At this point, you're thinking it's been pretty solid. You ain't seen nothing yet.

Deacon Blues is more gentle, more pop-like and as a result, cracked the top 40.

Then we get the tune with the crazy guitar solo, Peg. It has a pop flavour as well, with an even sunnier disposition. You'll hear Michael Macdonald multi-tracked in the chorus. The solo that arrives at the 1:46 mark took a while to achieve. The lads are known for trying out various musicians to improvise certain parts of their songs, and they were being very picky about finding just the right sound for the guitar solo. Seven artists gave it a shot, but after six hours of noodling, Jay Graydon's Hawaiian sounding slide was chosen.

Home at Last is a nice slow, rollicking bluesy number. I Got the News is probably the album's most forgettable song.

Lastly comes Josie with its delta blues feel. See? Jazz doesn't have to be boring or unrelatable. If you add just enough rock and soul to the mix, it can be fun. So long as it's in the right hands. Becker and Fagen create a hybrid like no other.