Steely Dan AJA on vinyl

[Wardsweb]

Let me start by saying Steely Dan is one of my favorite bands of all

time and thus, I have every album they have ever done and this includes

Donald Fagen's solo efforts. I consider AJA one of the bench mark albums in history, so I'm collecting all the different

pressings of AJA. At present, I have 6 of the 12 known pressings. Which brings me to the focus of this post.

I just received a Simply Vinyl 180g pressing of AJA. Of the pressings I

have heard, this is the best this album has ever sounded to me.

It is absolutely stellar. The vinyl is quiet, the background is dark,

the highs crisp, the mids detailed and the bottom end more natural. I

find some pressing have been a little over engineered with the bottom

end boosted for effect. For me, this album is "spot on". If

you're ever going to be in San Antonio, TX drop me a line to stop by

and give a listen.

Feed the Passion - Live the Dream

[garymd]

I've also gone through a number of copies of this LP. My current MFSL copy is the best I've heard thus far.

[Wardsweb]

I've also gone through a number of copies of this

LP. My current MFSL copy is the best I've heard thus far.

I have a mint Mo-Fi copy coming. Then time for some critical listening.

My present MFSL copy has seen better days, so I'm looking forward to

the comparison.

[garymd]

It's one of the cleanest and quietest MOFIs I own but varies from song to song. You can really crank the volume with this LP.

[Wardsweb]

Came home from buying my daughter a car for college and there was a

package waiting for me from Budapest Hungary. There it was from the

other side of the world, an original sealed German pressing of Steely

Dan AJA. Add one more to my collection.

[garymd]

I have a Philippene pressing of Pretzel Logic. Nice sounding copy.

[Steve_L]

AJA is truly one of the very best pop-rock albums ever made in my opinion.

Even my lowly original production run AJA is a pleasure to listen to today. Black Cow, AJA, Decon Blues, Peg, Josie... what beautiful music. The jazz infused soft rock and soul, pop mix is just so great.

There are a few others that do some of what Donald and Walter do, Boz Scaggs and Van Morisson come to mind as having some similarities sometimes, but no one does it quite like these guys do.

I also think their Two Against Nature DVD is the standard for HT comcerts too.

I hope Fagan and Becker keep on working together and giving us such great music.

[Mike Lindsey]

One of my favorite groups of all time as well. I have 8 of their albums on vinyl and all of them are just the plain original pressings. []

I have recently been buying MFSL recordings (just picked up Year Of The Cat and Crime Of The Century) and have been seriously looking at getting a copy of Aja as well (I have the MFSL version on CD and it is excellent). I have been trying to keep the price down to $25/ea and that includes the shipping. Not easy to do with these pressings.

As for my favorite Steely Dan albums I have 3 that I play more than the others... Aja, Can't Buy A Thrill and Gaucho. Gaucho has Time Out Of Mind on it, and that is my favorite Steely Dan tune. I dare you to crank that one up and not be smiling while it's playing. []

Mike