I.G.Y.: The Future That Never Arrived
The opening track of The Nightfly promises a tomorrow of spandex jackets and undersea rail, delivered with the bittersweet knowledge that 1982 knows how the story ends.
• Matt Dennis
Black Cow: The Opening Statement of Immaculate Confrontation
How the first track of Aja establishes the sonic template for perfection: Victor Feldman's Rhodes, Bernard Purdie's pocket, and a narrator who's had enough.
• Matt Dennis
Haitian Divorce: Voodoo, Talk Box, and the Dissolution of the American Marriage
How Steely Dan built the strangest track on The Royal Scam around Dean Parks' talk box guitar, a Caribbean narrative of marital collapse, and a groove that became their biggest UK hit.
• Matt Dennis
The Royal Scam: The American Dream with Monsters on the Roof
How the title track of Steely Dan's fifth album closes the record with a six-and-a-half-minute epic about immigrant disillusionment, urban predation, and the most hideous album cover of the seventies.
• Matt Dennis
Time Out of Mind: The Digital Heartbeat of Heroin Chic
How Steely Dan turned a song about heroin addiction into a polished pop gem, featuring Mark Knopfler and the most aggressive use of digital sampling on the album.
• Matt Dennis
Aja Track by Track: The Most Expensive Album Ever Made
A deep dive into every song on Steely Dan's 1977 masterpiece and the obsession behind it
• Matt Dennis
Steely Dan's Studio Obsession: Why They Fired Everyone
How two perfectionists dissolved their band to build the cleanest sound in rock
• Matt Dennis
The Yacht Rock Sound: A Technical Breakdown
Why those smooth late-70s records sound so good on boat speakers—and everywhere else
• Matt Dennis