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Apple Music 100 Best Albums

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Aja

Steely Dan

73

At their most direct, Donald Fagen and Walter Becker delivered a masterpiece, full of tragic romanticism.

Donald Fagen and Walter Becker’s approach to recording had evolved from a fixed group of people playing a set of songs from start to finish to a piecemeal process in which they tried out multiple players for the same part until they found a satisfactory combination—all before doing it all over again on the next song. As sophisticated as the process was, Steely Dan never sounded as direct as they do on Aja. There’s the R&B of “Josie”, the bounce of “Black Cow” and the fact that “Peg” felt like actual dance music rather than a dissertation on it.

“Steely Dan is the band that every song that you love that you don’t know who it is, it’s them.”

Mayer Hawthorne

In the coastal fog of 1970s California pop, Fagen and Becker had always appeared like bookish New York hipsters raised on R&B and jazz. But Aja was the first time that identity had come through so clearly in the music. And while there are plenty of close seconds, no character captured Steely Dan’s tragic romanticism like the suburban guy on “Deacon Blues”, who fantasises about becoming a saxophone player—only to get drunk and die in a car wreck. Yeah, he’s a misfit. But least he believed in something.

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SOS

SZA

72

A majestic raw nerve that set the bar for modern R&B.

In 2017, Ctrl—a 14-track project filled with songs about love, sex, self-doubt and heartbreak—became one of the most influential albums in modern R&B. It was the soundtrack for many people in their twenties, highlighting the growing pains of young adulthood via diaristic, ultra-relatable lyrics and ruminations straight out of friend group chats. Five years later, SZA returned—just as honest, but trading self-love and acceptance for defiance. SOS is the sound of someone who’s had enough.

The title track, “Smoking on My Ex Pack” and “Far” exhibit a weariness and a wariness; she finds confidence on “Conceited” and “Forgiveless”. On “Ghost in the Machine”, she contemplates her loss of privacy and humanity with fellow Gen Z icon Phoebe Bridgers. The growth between her debut and sophomore album is stylistic as much as lyrical, blending a mix of her beloved lo-fi beats with grunge- and punk-inspired flourishes. None of it sounds out of place: SOS is the messy, majestic raw nerve of a masterpiece that the moment deserves.

SOS by SZA