Editor’s Note: From Albumism’s inception back in 2016, we’ve remained unabashedly and unequivocally passionate about our mission of celebrating the world's love affairs with albums past, present and future.

But while our devotion to the album as an art form has remained steadfast, as evidenced by our deepening repository of individual album tributes and reviews, we’ve admittedly seldom taken the opportunity to explicitly articulate our reverence for the virtues of artists’ complete album repertoires as a whole.

Hence why we’ve decided to showcase what we believe to be the most dynamic discographies of all time in this recurring series. In doing so, we hope to better understand the broader creative context within which our most beloved individual albums exist, while acknowledging the full breadth of their creators’ artistry, career arcs, and overall contributions to the ever-evolving musical landscape.

We hope you enjoy this series and be sure to check here periodically for the latest installments.

STEELY DAN

It’s weird to me that there are people who don’t like Steely Dan. I mean, I know people who fall into this category, like my husband and my mom. People who are otherwise Good, Upstanding Members of Society, but just, like, they don’t quite get Donald Fagen and Walter Becker’s elaborate jazz-rock fusion. I don’t get what they don’t get.

Like a Mondrian painting or a cheap motel, Steely Dan has so many entry points. Do you want to rock, but, like, in a chill way? Can’t Buy a Thrill, with Denny Diaz and Elliot Randall and Jeff “Skunk” Baxter taking front and center with a couple of rapturous guitar solos. Want to melt into narcotic ecstasy, minus the hard drugs? The dark, perfumed rapture of Aja. Looking for a happy medium? Two Against Nature, which is a Whitman’s Sampler of everything that makes Steely Dan great—caustic and tender, hushed and raucous.

Because Steely Dan is never just one sound. Sure, there are markers; the mu major chord, the brutal sarcasm, the impossibly slick jazz underpinnings and the loners and losers who populate the Daniverse. But each Steely Dan song is a musical snowflake, an elaborate masterpiece that gets more intricate the longer you examine.

Steely Dan made albums for a deep listen, a lost art in a time when far too much demands our already-stretched attention. But do yourself a favor. Pick an album—The Royal Scam, Aja and Pretzel Logic will give you the widest range of Dan sound per album—and settle into your favorite chair. Put away your phone, put up your feet, really indulge yourself.

And you just might finally get it.

Libby’s 3 Favorite Steely Dan Albums of All Time:

1. The Royal Scam (1976)
2. Aja (1977)
3. Pretzel Logic (1974)

VISIT Steely Dan’s Official Store

LISTEN: