If you Google "who are the most 'dad rock' bands of all time?" it's basically a given that Steely Dan is going to make an appearance somewhere near the tippy-top of the list. As the kings of 70's rock subversion, Steely Dan's cult status embodies the heart and soul of every 50-something's nostalgia for "what music used to be." Founded by Donald Fagen and Walter Becker in 1971, the band's 9 album discography tracks a gradual transition from off-kilter pop into a one-of-a-kind combination of jazz, rock, and pop that has yet to be replicated. The group's genius lies in the understated nature of their experimentation; their songs are often sophisticated compositions with indecipherable lyrics and unexpected left turns, but they're also extremely approachable. Even at their headiest and most boundary-pushing, Steely Dan is never difficult to listen to, and it's that particular quality I've come to appreciate even more deeply after diving into their entire catalog from start to finish. As someone who mostly knew the band from their occasional appearances in my dad's iPod mixes growing up, constructing this list was a wonderfully nostalgic experience that marks my first step towards that ever covetous position of a "real" Steely Dan fan. As a recent convert, I can't promise that my list is going to represent the concensus of the band's loyal extremists, but I can promise that it still comes from a place of nothing but adoration and respect for the undisputed champs of dads and their rock music everywhere. Now, without further ado...
9. Everything Must Go (2003)
Understandably, the most recent release from a band best known for their work in the 70's is also the semi-inarguable lowest point of their entire career. In many ways, it feels somewhat unfair to even compare a record like Everything Must Go against the rest of the band's discography, since much of the album's missteps result from forces entirely out of Becker and Fagen's control. For example, Fagen's vocals just don't sound as good as they used to, and the sheer act of listening to this record is simply less enjoyable than their earlier releases. On the positive side, Everything Must Go sees Fagen and Becker embracing their chemistry as a duo, and their playing emphasizes a live aesthetic their music never has. This album really does feel like being privy to a jam session, which can be charming at times, but ultimately results in the record feeling aimless and messy on the whole. There's certainly a handful of hits on Everything Must Go, such as the jazzy title track that closes out the album. The sax on this song is nothing short of exquisite, and Becker and Fagen are able to settle into a complimentary groove that makes for an enjoyable end to the record. Altogether, however, there really isn't much to say about Everything Must Go that isn't already implied by the album's sheer existence. It's sadly not a stirring return to form, but with a catalog as stacked as Steely Dan's, that's also not really much of a disappointment. While this album certainly feels as if it's lacking the magic of what once made the band so exceptional, I would personally consider it forgettable rather than downright offensive.
Favorite Track: Everything Must Go
8. Two Against Nature (2000)
Twenty years after the release of Gaucho, Steely Dan surprised just about everybody by once again returning to the studio and releasing their eighth album, Two Against Nature. While Becker and Fagen had both released solo music and toured steadily throughout the 80's and 90's, fans of the band had basically given up hope at ever hearing the duo back together again for a proper SD release. For a comeback album, Two Against Nature is certainly far better than it could have been... but that doesn't mean it's anywhere near the music that had preceded it. As one could have predicted, a twenty year hiatus didn't do wonders for the band's chemistry and ambition, and Two Against Nature largely sounds like a decent impression of Steely Dan's most well-worn tropes and traditions. That's not to say that this album has nothing new to offer, as the horn arrangements on this record are a distinct upgrade and evolution of the brass sections that had dotted their prior releases. Altogether, however, Two Against Nature is a deeply forgettable and overly drawn-out collection of half-baked — albeit earnest — ideas. Approaching this album after chronologically experiencing the rest of their discography, I found myself frequently checking the clock as the track-list persisted. For a group so well-known for their concise musical statements, Two Against Nature is confusingly lengthy and meandering, and it's difficult to imagine myself having a desire to return to it anytime soon. There's honeslty nothing inherently wrong with Steely Dan's eighth studio album, but in a discography chock full of stellar releases, there's basically zero incentive whatsoever for anyone who enjoys their music to tune into this one.
Favorite Track: Almost Gothic
7. Countdown to Ecstasy (1973)
In my admittedly minimal research in preparation for this ranking, I found it quite difficult to determine a clear barometric reading on how Steely Dan's fans felt about the band's sophomore effort, Countdown to Ecstasy. Opinions certainly seem mixed, since while the album definitely shows more complexity and ambition than their debut, it also lacks a great deal of the memorability and precision. Personally, I found Countdown to Ecstasy somewhat difficult to connect with, and it was easily the album from the band's active years I had the most trouble finishing. This is not at all to say that this record is bad, but merely that it is far more meandering than I care to enjoy. Sonically, Countdown pulls from the same palette as Can't Buy a Thrill, but it instead places the focus on wandering jams and excursions. At times, this results in some of the band's strongest work. "The Boston Rag" and "My Old School" are nothing short of exceptional, and the growling guitar work on a track like "Show Biz Kids" definitely scratches an itch in my brain. In general, however, the songs on this record really tend to overstay their welcome, often falling handily into the 5 minute range. While there's certainly nothing wrong with an extended runtime, the compositions and performances are just a bit too stagnant to justify my unwavering engagement on songs like "King of the World." Without a doubt, however, Countdown to Ecstasy marks a noticeable shift towards what would one day become the band's signature style, as the lyrics here contain significantly more substance than their previous release. "Your Gold Teeth" is an epitomizing example of the group's sardonic brilliance, and traces of Countdown can definitely still be heard in many of their greatest works. Still, as a whole, this album didn't leave the same lasting impression as the rest of the records I've slotted above it, and while it's certainly worth a listen, I can't see it being a Steely Dan record I'm going to be returning to in full anytime soon.
Favorite Track: The Boston Rag
6. Can't Buy a Thrill (1972)
The record that started it all. While the radio-friendly ambitions of Can't Buy a Thrill can make it easy to disregard within the scope of Steely Dan's work, there's no denying that the band had something special up their sleeves from the very beginning. Recorded before the group had any sort of consistent style or line-up (Donald Fagen doesn't even sing on two of the tracks), Can't Buy a Thrill is best remembered for containing nearly all of the band's most successful singles to date. "Dirty Work," "Do It Again," "Reelin' In The Years;" those singles alone basically paved a new lane that has yet to be inhabited so ubiquitously by a single artist. As an album, it's a much more radio-friendly offering than the genre-bending jazz-rock that succeeded it, but I think dismissing Can't Buy a Thrill is a gross overexaggeration that belittles so much of the album's approachable brilliance. For a band who has unfortunately become synonymous with pretention and overanalysis, this record is a wonderfully simple presentation that encourages listener-ship of all kinds. There's a reason the aforementioned singles have stood the test of time; they're an ideal blend of idiosyncracy and pop appeal that convey the band's lofty ambitions more concisely than even some of their more lauded endeavors. To this day, there still isn't really anything that sounds quite like Can't Buy a Thrill, especially not in the rest of Steely Dan's catalog. Admittedly, however, the album cuts definitely pale in comparison to the singles, and aside from the Lennon-bashing-brilliance of "Only a Fool Would Say That," very few of the record's lyrics have anything to sink your teeth into. Still, I firmly consider Can't Buy a Thrill to be one of Steely Dan's greatest offerings ever, and I'd wager that deep down even the snobbiest of SD-fans might just agree with me.
Favorite Track: Only a Fool Would Say That
5. Katy Lied (1975)
Throughout the recording of Steely Dan's third record, Pretzel Logic, in 1974, Donald Fagen and Walter Becker's desire to no longer tour was creating a significant rift with the rest of the band. Both men found the touring process to be draining, and favored the substantial freedom and fine-tuning capability of the recording studio. By 1975, guitarist Jeff Baxter and vocalist Jim Hodder had both officially departed from the band's lineup, so Becker and Fagen were set up to finally retreat into the studio and create the un-toured masterpiece of their dreams. And create they did. Recorded with a slew of different studio musicians, the band's fourth record, Katy Lied, is a striking and unforgettable testament to their newfound studio wizardry. More than ever before, Fagen and Becker were free to tinker with the minutia and perfectionism of one of their albums, and the result is a record of strange but utterly delightful jams. The entirety of Katy Lied benefits from a noticeable sheen; a glossy finish of shimmering sonic palettes that makes the album's weirdest departures far more approachable. Unbelievably, Becker and Fagen have apparently both never listened to this album since its release, due to a massive mixing mishap that they believe ruined the record. By all other accounts, the original mix has basically been restored, and for the average listener, Katy Lied ironically sounds like one of the sharpest mixes in their entire discography. The harmonies and instrumentation are airtight, and the arrangements on songs like "Your Gold Teeth II" and "Bad Sneakers" are nothing short of marvelous to behold. However, there is definitely a sense of spontaneity that feels somewhat lost with this new sense of meticulous structure. There's no doubt that Katy Lied is home to some of the most fascinating compositions in the band's career, but its self-imposed rigidity lends to it feeling somewhat more forgettable than their more recognizable work. Regardless, Katy Lied marked a tremendous leap forward for Steely Dan, and paved the way for what would become the band's most beloved and groundbreaking works to follow.
Favorite Track: Bad Sneakers
4. Gaucho (1980)
After the commercial and critical success of Aja in 1977, Donald Fagen and Walter Becker elected to go on hiatus for the first time in their career thus far. A few years later, they returned to the studio to begin work on their seventh album, but the recording process was almost immediately met with disaster. Early into the recording process, Becker's long-term girlfriend died of a drug overdose, which led to him facing legal action from her family as a means of seeking compensation. Additionally, Becker's was also struck by a car, which meant that many of his contributions had to be done over telephone while hospitalized. On top of all that, the studio sessions for the album were reportedly stressful and tense, with many contributors growing to resent Fagen and Becker's perfectionist standards. Still, in 1980, the band released Gaucho, and while it may have been the product of complete and utter turmoil... it's actually the smoothest and most easy-going record in their entire catalog. Much like the gentle tango depicted on its cover, Gaucho is a beautiful collection of the band's most languid and overtly melodramatic statements to date. Latin-inspired melodies take center stage on this record, capturing an essence of nocturnal lounge music that never loses its SD edge. Singles like "Hey Nineteen" and "Time Out of Mind" remain some of the band's most successful hits, and album cuts are "Glamour Profession" and "Babylon Sisters" are nothing short of majestic. There's a cinematic quality to Gaucho that elevates it beyond some of the band's earlier work, translating into a record with a noticeable sense of scope. This album marked the first time that Steely Dan's music was widely labeled as "yacht rock," and while the laid-back nature of the record certainly appeals to the same sensibilities as other yacht rockers, there's a great deal more at play throughout Gaucho than meets the eye. Once again, the lyrics are cynical and debaucherous, transforming the unadulterated sleaze of The Royal Scam's characters into mid-life depictions of beach bums and mall rats. When all's said and done, Gaucho is one of the most sonically rich works that Steely Dan has ever created, and it's easily one of the records I'm most excited to revisit after this ranking.
Favorite Track: Time Out of Mind
3. Pretzel Logic (1974)
It's quite easy to view the Steely Dan discography in sets of trilogies, each marking separate eras in the band's sound and styles. Applying the same line of thinking to Pretzel Logic, the group's third album very much feels like closing the book on their early era and definitively moving forward. The album was the last recorded by the band while they were still a band in the traditional sense, since later releases saw Becker and Fagen retreating to the studio with a Lazy Susan roster of different players. When they set out to create this particular album, the group aimed to construct fully-formed compositions within the confines of 3 minute pop hits, and that's exactly what they did. At just 34 minutes, Pretzel Logic is a complete distillation of everything that had defined the band on their first two releases, but with an unbridled sense of creativity that was arguably never topped by their following efforts. The arrangements here are tight and focused, favoring groove above just about everything else. There's a delightful sense of momentum to Pretzel Logic's track-list that really elevates the record and gives it a sense of nearly infinite enjoyment. The album notably also features the band's first overt usage of jazz influences, ranging from homages to Charlie Parker on "Parker's Band" to a flat-out cover of Duke Ellington with "East St. Louis Toodle-Oo." Song after song, this album is a tour de force of creative expression and patented Steely Dan zaniness, and this is easily the single most fun record the band has ever released. You get just enough of everything you could ever want on Pretzel Logic, and even the less favorable moments come and go without much hindrance at all. Altogether, this album marks one of the highest benchmarks for Steely Dan as a group, and I personally find it exemplarary of the meaningful way their music tends to connect with their listeners. For a group so synonymous with highbrow analysis and engagement, the fact that Pretzel Logic is such a beloved release captures an oft underrated facet of Steely Dan's music that absolutely bears celebration: good-ass vibes.
Favorite Track: Any Major Dude Will Tell You
2. The Royal Scam (1976)
For the first four albums of their career, Steely Dan had recorded exclusively in Los Angeles. In many ways, the city's reputation of sunny commercialism and two-faced businessmen can be heard as a direct influence on the cynical lyrics of their earlier tracks. When it came time to record their fifth studio album, however, Fagen and Becker decided to partially relocate to New York City, and the darker influence of one of the most famously sketchy metropolises in the world is readily apparent on the final product that is The Royal Scam. There's no doubt that Fagen and Becker's lyrics have always embraced the seediness of the human condition (just take "Everyone's Gone to the Movies" from Katy Lied), but they're best known for embracing these sorts of topics with their trademark brand of unforgettable wit. In contrast, The Royal Scam is decidedly much more apocalyptic, wallowing in scummiest of scumbags and reveling in subject matter like unprotected sex, murder, gambling, and capitalistic decay. At the time of its release, this darker edge alienated some fans from the project, but I personally find that time has been nothing but kind to The Royal Scam. While it's true that the lyrics of tracks like "Kid Charlemagne" and "The Fez" are more debaucherous than much of the band's earlier output, the actual music is just as intricate and delightful as ever. I'd consider "Caves of Altamira" to be one of the greatest songs in their entire catalog, and the whole album embodies a rawer sense of spontaneity that Katy Lied was lacking. In many ways, the actual compositions here are some of the most beautiful the band has ever recorded, and while the lyrics can stray into unnecessary sleaziness at times, this dichotomy generally makes The Royal Scam a wholly captivating release with a great deal of replayability. In the years since its release, Becker has spoken on the album as being a conceptual tale of losing one's innoncence, told through a variety of characters and storylines. There's no doubt that The Royal Scam is the loosest and least composed Steely Dan had sounded since Countdown to Ecstasy, but the record's sense of thematic focus adds a purposeful forward momentum to the collage. Altogether, The Royal Scam is an clear example of ambition paying off, and I find it to be personally be one of the strongest and most thought-provoking journeys Becker and Fagen ever saw fit to embark on.
Favorite Track: The Caves of Altamira
1. Aja (1977)
The idea of a "perfect album" is an arbitrary concept that tends to dominate music chat rooms and comment sections, and even the staunchest of music snobs would be quick to acknowledge such an objective label could never be accurately applied to something as subjective as music. With that being said, Aja by Steely Dan is basically a pefect album. Five years and five albums deep into their career, Donald Fagen and Walter Becker fully tapped into the epitome of the jazz-oriented zaniness they had been born to create, and the resulting album is a perfectly paced selection of 7 excellent songs. Made with a roster of nearly 40 different musicians, Aja is shockingly cohesive, and nary a note sounds out of place. The sounds are eclectic (what even is that instrument on "Peg?"), the lyrics are sharp and catchy, and the longer runtimes feel completely justified. There's elements of every one of the band's past works present in some way or another on Aja, be it the jamminess of Countdown to Ecstasy on tracks like "Deacon Blues" or the buttery-smooth grooves of Pretzel Logic on "Black Cow." In just 40 minutes, the entirety of the Steely Dan sound is explored at the absolute highest level, once again walking that indeterminable tightrope between experimentation and pop appeal. "Peg" is one of the most beloved songs of the entire 70's era, and it also happens to be utterly bonkers and a complete marvel of arrangement and structure. Aja embodies the inherent approachability of Steely Dan, because regardless of how heady and genre-bending it might get, careful attention is giving to make sure the album sounds the best it possibly can. At the end of the day, there really isn't a single other band that could have ever even hoped to make a record like Aja, and there's no doubt in my mind that it will continue to wow old-school fans and new recruits alike for decades and decades to come.
Favorite Track: Peg
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