Steely Dan, Pretzel Logic (1974)

A key album this – for both the band and me. It was the first Steely Dan LP I heard – the first album away from all the singles I knew and a couple of Greatest Hits-type compilations. It’s also the bridging album for the band between being an actual group and being whatever Walter Becker and Donald Fagen as musical-auteur types decide. They ran the show from here on (if they didn’t entirely beforehand also). And it’s the most overtly jazz-ish, it shows the connection to the jazz that Fagen (particularly) and Becker loved and listened to and researched. It’s in the tunes, it informs the tunes, it’s in the approach – that approach extending over from here to every other album: pick the best man for the job, that player that can deliver the best performance. Fuck, I love Steely Dan. There’s no one great album for me – well, beyond Aja I guess. They’re all great. I love them all. [Here’s the whole album]

Sample Track: Rikki Don’t Lose That Number

The Vinyl Countdown is a document of every LP I listen to, brand new discoveries and old-old favourites; extremely pre-loved, previously abandoned or with the shrink-wrap having just been removed it’s all here at The Vinyl Countdown