The Royal Scam (studio album) by Steely Dan
Condition: Used
Condition: Used
Condition: Used
Steely Dan bestography
The Royal Scam is ranked 6th best out of 21 albums by Steely Dan on BestEverAlbums.com.
The best album by Steely Dan is Aja which is ranked number 178 in the list of all-time albums with a total rank score of 9,584.
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The Royal Scam track list
The tracks on this album have an average rating of 84 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).
Top-rated track as rated by BestEverAlbums.com members.
The Royal Scam rankings
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The Royal Scam collection
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The Royal Scam ratings

where:
av = trimmed mean average rating an item has currently received.
n = number of ratings an item has currently received.
m = minimum number of ratings required for an item to appear in a 'top-rated' chart (currently 10).
AV = the site mean average rating.
Showing latest 5 ratings for this album. | Show all 329 ratings for this album.
Rating | Date updated | Member | Album ratings | Avg. album rating |
---|---|---|---|---|
60/100 ![]() | 03/24/2023 15:58 | ![]() | ![]() | 59/100 |
75/100 ![]() | 03/23/2023 23:04 | Hyggevinyl | ![]() | 74/100 |
35/100 ![]() | 03/20/2023 19:52 | ![]() | ![]() | 60/100 |
100/100 ![]() | 03/14/2023 05:25 | TradeShark | ![]() | 48/100 |
65/100 ![]() | 02/25/2023 16:49 | bonnequestion | ![]() | 70/100 |
Rating metrics:
Outliers can be removed when calculating a mean average to dampen the effects of ratings outside the normal distribution. This figure is provided as the trimmed mean. A high standard deviation can be legitimate, but can sometimes indicate 'gaming' is occurring. Consider a simplified example* of an item receiving ratings of 100, 50, & 0. The mean average rating would be 50. However, ratings of 55, 50 & 45 could also result in the same average. The second average might be more trusted because there is more consensus around a particular rating (a lower deviation).
(*In practice, some albums can have several thousand ratings)
This album is rated in the top 1% of all albums on BestEverAlbums.com. This album has a Bayesian average rating of 81.0/100, a mean average of 80.1/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 81.3/100. The standard deviation for this album is 14.2.
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The Royal Scam comments
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American banks are Scam? 😳 I didn’t know that.
Damn, great tracks from 1 to 7 then slacks off on the last two (not bad though). The production is maybe a bit too... "clean" for me? Anyway, great record for sure.
A-
Another very chill and relaxing SD album but it does fall a little short of their better albums for me. This record is front heavy with the 2 massive songs coming right at the start with Kid Charlemagne and The Caves Of Altamira. Both have fantastic instrumental performances on and I love the guitar solos that really give these songs an edge. The album then remains consistent in its style but the quality does drop a little. Every song contributes to the record though and altogether they build this fantastic environment for the listener to enjoy. After the slight dip you then get Haitian Divorce which is brilliant and it acts as a peak that keeps me entertained during the slower part. Overall, this album is very good and has moments of excellence but can't keep that up on this record unlike some of their other work.

One of my favorite bands, albeit for many SD is too clean, but not for me. I do appreciate good production, great sonics, and musicianship.
For me, their second best, after the epic Aja. Countdown to Ecstasy also ranks way up there. Oh, and Gaucho. OK, I love SD.
Fine 70s chill album with great opener. The sound is nice on ears, vocals are really good.

Probably their least spotty record, not a bad song on here.
This is my all time fav Steely Dan album. I have the original release of this one from the 70s where the album sleeve has no barcode on the back. Plays perfect. Haitian Divorce is at the top, then Caves of Altimira.
this is my favorite SD album. Has a quirkier, rockies vibe that I like better than the jazzy albums. Can't Buy a Thrill is 2nd favorite folloeed by Aja and Katy Lied. Pretzel Logic is in 5th place.

I want to say that it's better than Aja but it was such a long time since I listened to that record so I would have to give it another shot before making a determination. But. I do maintain that I believe it would have more of an emotional impact if it was less over-produced, though I do understand what people are saying about Steely Dan "doing it right". The album sounds a lot like a mix of Billy Joel and Stevie Wonder, but much more jammy than both. Kid Charlemagne is a real hit. The songs with a little more grove in them, like the fOnk on this one, serves the record well and cancels out a bit of that over-produced "esteem" that they have going on. The two following songs are also brilliant, Caves of Altamira and Don't Take Me Alive. And the album remains incredibly consistent all the way through. The mouth-guitar on Haitian Divorce is really cool. Lots of different sounds on this. Brilliant musicianship all the way through. Opened my eyes to these guys I have to say.
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