For many critics and fans, Steely Dan’s album Aja from 1977 is probably their best and one that always lands on top 100 albums of all time.
Now, as Universal’s official UDiscoverMusic site announces, it will be the next release in Geffen/UMe’s extensive reissue program of the group’s hallowed catalog of releases for ABC and MCA Records.
It is now newly remastered from the analog tapes, and it will make its return to vinyl on September 29. The album has been remastered by Bernie Grundman from an analog, non-EQ’d, tape copy. It will be pressed on 180-gram black vinyl at 33 1/3 RPM.
As with all the titles in the collection, Aja will also be released as a limited edition premium 45 RPM version on Ultra High-Quality Vinyl (UHQR) from Analogue Productions, the audiophile in-house reissue label of Acoustic Sounds. Analogue Productions is also releasing the album series on Super Audio CD (SACD).
The announcement adds that Aja was the sixth album in only five years by Steely Dan, taking the band’s masterminds Walter Becker and Donald Fagen to a new plateau of creativity and acclaim. It became their fastest seller to date and first platinum record, later rising to double platinum. It spent 60 weeks on the US charts, fueled by the Top 20 hits “Peg” and “Deacon Blues,” as well as the Top 40 “Josie.” The album went on to win a Grammy Award for Best Engineered Recording – Non Classical and was nominated for Album of the Year and Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group.
