Music

AUX Top 10: July 2013

by AUX staff

Each month at AUX, our specialists in punk, metal, indie, hip hop, electronic, and pop vouch for their favourite releases of the month and have it out behind the scenes like the very best friends that we are to bring you a trim, alphabetical, genre-representational list of the Top 10 Albums of the Month.

Here were our favourite releases from the last month.

By: Chayne Japal, Jeremy Mersereau, Tyler Munro, Mark Teo, Nicole Villeneuve, and Aaron Zorgel

Ace Hood
Trials & Tribulations
(We The Best/Cash Money/Universal)
“Bugatti” is a beast of a track, breaking out the moment it hit and forcing Ace Hood to bump up the release date for his fourth album. Yet the song-of-the-year candidate humbly plays its part on Trials & Tribulations. As the album intro and title-track opener point out, the record is a spiritual testimony of the struggles the rapper faces in his ongoing pursuit of success. The songs are sincere and passionate, Ace’s flow urgent and beats grim, as Ace covers his defeats and triumphs with full transparency. His honesty is confirmed by the religious approach he takes with songs like “My Bible” and “Pray For Me,” which also help to build a reverent, pensive tone. Following 2011‘s equally cohesive Blood, Sweat & Tears, mixtapes, and a handful of standout guest spots, this is another exceptional effort from the misconceived Florida native. It’s tough to still call him underrated, as his ties to the influential DJ Khaled have placed him on the powerful Cash Money roster, but for how much he puts into his music, it’s hard to imagine him ever getting as much back in return. (CJ)

Amon Amarth
Deceiver of the Gods
(Metal Blade)
With every Amon Amarth album comes a guaranteed sound, but with that, the necessary variation, and on Deceiver of the Gods, the heavier blend of melodic leads with a harsher edge makes for their best album since With Oden on Our Side. What separates Deceiver of the Gods from 2011’s Surtur Rising is the more traditional twin-axe attack, with both guitars bringing a more Maiden-esque approach to the band’s established melo-death formula. If the anthemic war cries of songs like “Blood Eagle” or “We Shall Destroy” aren’t the best things on here, then the next best bet is “As Loke Falls,” which replaces the harmonic intro of the opening track with a driving finger-tapped lead that, when paired with singer Johan Hegg’s unmistakeable howl, make for a devastating combo. All around, Deceiver of the Gods is a glorious victory for one of death metal’s most consistent bands. (TM)

Jay Arner
Jay Arner
(Mint Records)
Vancouver’s Mint Records has been one of the most influential labels in Canada’s independent music history, and leading their recent re-up is none other than Vancouver’s Jay Arner. Having spent years playing in and producing other bands, Jay’s solo debut is entirely and exactly that—he recorded, played, and produced everything by himself. The production is stellar and elevates the record beyond its easy bedroom-pop label, and the songwriting itself is so timeless that the retro electro of “Broken Glass,” the Sloan-sounding “Don’t Remind Me,” or the Shins vibe of a song like “Nightclubs” all sounds like a cohesive package. We’re lucky to have this one, Canada. (NV)

CFCF
Music For Objects
(Paper Bag Records)
The musical progression of Montreal producer Michael Silver, a.k.a. CFCF, has been nothing short of astounding: His debut LP, Continent, saw him experimenting with lush, cinematic post-house, but few could predict the fully neo-classical turn he’d take by the time his Paper Bag-released 12-inch, Exercises, arrived. Music For Objects—a companion to Exercises—continues his foray into the neo-classical sphere, but unlike the formative work of ’70s-era Brian Eno or Erik Satie, this isn’t built around mood-altering soundscapes or background-music ambience; Objects has real pop sensibilities, and as such, Silver’s bright, warm, rolling pianos and lush, stylish synthesizers command attention. The finest synthesis of his sounds, however, might be “Keys,” where, atop the EP’s only prominent dancefloor ready beat, Silver layers ambient Canadian wildlife noises, distorted synthesizers and roaming piano chords—it’s a mélange of organic and synthetic that has no business working. Until, of course, it does. (MT)

Ciara
Ciara
(Epic)
It’s been a couple of albums since we’ve seen CiCi in her element. After 2004 debut Goodies introduced us to Ciara’s seductive brand of female crunk (frunk?), label issues marred subsequent releases. Despite cranking out some legit genre-defining bangers, Ciara’s post-Goodies output didn’t propel her to the forefront of mononym-pop glory, where Rihanna and Beyoncé dominate. After a departure from Jive Records, and a reunion with former label boss and early proponent L.A. Reid at Epic Records, it’s fitting that Ciara’s fifth studio album is self-titled, because it represents the beginning of an era positioning her as close as ever to single-named diva status. Ciara is a collection of songs that straddle the duality of the singer, putting songs featuring her sultry, airy vocals (“Body Party,” “DUI”) up against club-appropriate workout jams like “I’m Out” and the self-produced anthem “Super Turnt Up.” A double shot of Nicki Minaj collabs are two of Ciara’s highlights; a full Watch The Throne style album wouldn’t be unwelcome, since they work so well together. (AZ)

Run The Jewels
Run the Jewels
(Fool’s Gold)
“Producer gave me a beat, said it’s the beat of the year / I said El-P didn’t do it, so get the fuck outta here.” Killer Mike’s right to daps his Run the Jewels partner: the artist formerly known as El Producto murders it here. The 10 productions that make up Run the Jewels are 100% certified neck-snappers, all woozy synths, dense sampling, and no-nonsense drums. Run the Jewels doesn’t slouch in the rhyme department either—gone are El-P’s Definitive Jux-era paranoid sci-fi rants and Killer Mike’s R.A.P. Music revolution radio. In their place are boasts about 36-inch chains and beating up fuccbois (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Fucc%20Boi). Big Boi even shows up on “Banana Clipper” to help out fellow Dungeon Family alum Mike. Did I mention it’s a free download? (JM)

Gay
Dance Mix 95
(Pleasence Records)
It’s hard to take an album called Dance Mix 95 seriously—especially since Gay hardly channels Whigfield. But like the band’s nomenclature, their Pleasence debut is unpredictable at every turn. Opener “Less Than Learning” sets the stage for the LP’s A.D.D. tendencies, shifting from post-rock to late-night sexy sax fare, eventually resting on a proggy rock-opera groove. Dance Mix 95 doesn’t settle into any defined groove from there — they flirt with angry-young-man pub rock a la Nick Lowe (“Dante and Susan”), Devo-esque new wave (the effervescent “It’s Summer”), and smooth, vocal-harmony driven folk (“Military Man”). There’s little consistency to the band’s caffeinated art rock, aside from their evident love of everything ’70s and British—from which they sample endlessly and with ferocious aplomb. On that level, Dance Mix 95 is most reminiscent of Roxy Music’s most energetic moments or XTC’s amphetamine-fuelled take on new wave: It’s frenetic, chameleonic and endlessly charismatic. (MT)

Freddie Gibbs
ESGN
(ESGN/Empire Distribution)
If Young Jeezy wasn’t already kicking himself for letting Gibbs go from his CTE label, he should be after hearing ESGN. Evil Seeds Grow Naturally might be better suited as the title of a straight-to-VHS slasher flick, but it’s still apt: “The Real G Money” sounds like Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells in the trap, “Hundred Thousand” resembles the Suspiria soundtrack over an 808, and Gibbs’ ice-cold flows commit more murders than that other famous Freddy. It’s not all a horror show though: producers Big Jerm & Sayeez do a great Harry Fraud impression on “Freddie Soprano,” and “Paper” simulates classic Houston screw. Lyrically, Freddie’s off-the-shelf gangsterisms aren’t anything new, but it’s his amazing ability to go from a Tupac cadence to a Bone-Thugz harmony on the same track—and make it sound natural—that’s the real draw. You could call ESGN just a gangsta rap album, but that’d be like calling The Sopranos just a show about gangsters. (JM)

Jay-Z
Magna Carta… Holy Grail
(Roc Nation/Island Def Jam)
Jay Z made it easy to hate this record before hearing it. There was that bullshit, totally staged commercial that used Rick Rubin as a (barely) living prop. There was the realization that Samsung is the biggest Jay Z fan on the planet, pre-purchasing a million copies for Galaxy users. When Billboard contested the validity of these sales, Hov started spouting off about the “new rules.” We knew that Magna Carta… Holy Grail was too big to fail, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t going to be shitty. But while not revolutionary, MCHG revealed itself to be pretty unhateable. The credits are a production stan’s creamdream: The-Dream, Timbaland/J-Roc, No I.D., Boi-1da, Pharrell, Hit-Boy, and Mike Will Made It all lent their chops to the record, and the biggest compliment due to MCHG is that the instrumentals are solid, especially “BBC” (Williams), and “Picasso Baby” (Timbaland/J-Roc). Even if you try your hardest to not give a shit about a new Jay Z record, he surrounds himself with so much talent that the end product is worth a couple of spins. New rules, same ol’ Hov. (AZ)

Misery Signals
Absent Light
(Independent)
Absent Light is Misery Signals at their most refined and, if not at their best, then certainly their most textured. After a brief hiatus, the ashes formerly known as 7 Angels 7 Plagues are back atop the genre as one of metalcore’s purest and most consistent bands. For the most part, Absent Light doesn’t buck any of the trends established on the band’s early work, opting instead to highlight them in bursts. “Luminary” drops a gauntlet on fist-raised chugging with some riff-y keyboards, while “Reborn” tosses some theatrical sounding strings into the mix, but for the most part Misery Signals are still defined by vocalist Karl Schubach’s haunting bark and Ryan Morgan’s dynamic guitar work. Absent Light isn’t revolutionary, but solid as it is, it never has to be. (TM)