AJA IS STEELY DAN'S long-awaited, greatly hyped coming of age. We have been tantalized with sneak pre-listens on local radio stations and with pre-release ovations from the rock press. It is finally here, and it is obvious why this album has created so much noise.

Steely Dan crosses the fine line it has been straddling for so long; the band has solidly ventured into jazz, both instrumentally and structurally, although their vocals remain the same. Yet, even the vocals are not totally sacred. Don Fagen's voice is different on Aja; it lacks the gisty rasp; it is cleaner, using harmony where it never did before. The guitar is not nearly as prominent a player as it is in the group's other dramas. The Dan are using horns, electric keyboards, symthesized sounds as well as a distict jazz rhythm for their music.

STEELY DAN has freed itself from the musical and expressive structures inherent in rock and roll. With mixed results, they are reckoning with their limitless potential.

Because of their limitless potential, this progression, Becker's scorching leads are sorely missed in the music. Steely Dan's ability to rock'n'roll attrated many of their current fans, and in Aja they have abandoned the juiced-up riffs of "Reelin' in the Years," and settled down to a contemporary jazz guitar, which is only intermittently prominent in the music. Sax, horns, vibes and keyboards carry the tunes to their destination, and in a very sophisticated way.

Donald Fagen and Walter Becker composed smooth lyrics for Aja, proving you can combine meaningful lines with structural jazz. In "Deacon Blues" they make us privy to the business of their new album:

This is the age of expanding man...

Throw a kiss and say goodbye

I'll make it this time

I'm ready to cross that fine line

I'll learn to work the saxophone

I play just what I feel

Drink Scotch whiskey all night long

And die behind the wheel

"Deacon Blues" is the blues of this album, at the same time it is the album's triumph. It is sad Steely Dan left its rock and rollpulpit for the endless plane of jazz; it is one of a handful of bands which can do justice to a rapidly whithering art. But Aja comes across as Steely Dan's "breaking on thru"; their growth is so limitless and their potential so boundless that it way only a matter of time before Aja had to arrive. Becker and Fagen are all that's left of the original Dan. Their everpressing musical curiosity has surfaced and taken hold to produce an album so technically sound it teases the senses to imagine the group's next work.

Aja is the most unique and original album released this year. The album cover is unDanly suave; a mysterious portrain of an exotic woman, it is its own glossy message, carefully designed and stated. There are not bad cuts, but there are several excellent ones. "Aja" and "Deacon Blues" stand as the album's keystones, musically leading the way, lyrically and philosophically into another stage of Steely Dan's growth. The horns and sax are slick, and the sound bottoms out with creditable vibes by Victor Fedlman.