Steely Dan’s “Aja’’ is not the most obvious album for a young indie-rock band to reimagine from tip to tail. Its songs are dense with complex structures, blurring the line between jazz and rock, and they’re emblematic of their era.
And yet the Darcys have re-created the classic album in its entirety. Simply called “Aja,’’ the Canadian band’s interpretation will be released on Tuesday, but it’s by no means a straight homage to the original.
“To be honest, I don’t think we could have done it note for note. It’s a really [expletive] difficult record,’’ says Wes Marskell, the band’s drummer who, at 25, wasn’t even alive when “Aja’’ was released in 1977. “My dad would play it when I was growing up, and we sort of it dedicated [our version] to our fathers.’’
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Calling from his Toronto home, Marskell recently weighed in on five other albums the Darcys would like to cover.
1. “Voodoo,’’ D’Angelo. “It’s so far out of our reach. Doing our post-rock version of ‘Voodoo’ might not sit well with people.’’
2. “Shine a Light,’’ Constantines. “I grew up on that record, and one of the reasons why we formed our band was because we all unified over loving Constantines.’’
3. “Endtroducing. . .,’’ DJ Shadow. “Trying to pull that off organically would be interesting. I loved that record in high school when I was learning to drive. Every time I got in the car, I would put it in.’’
4. “100th Window,’’ Massive Attack. “It’s so dark and heavy, and at times it’s really sparse. I think pulling that record together as a a band would be challenging.’’
5. “Aja,’’ Steely Dan. “I’d love to keep going back and re-recording the album from where we are as a band at that moment in time.’’