TenDeep: 10 Albums From July You Need To Hear

The July releases any respectable music fan should know.

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Complex Original

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These days, it's easy to be overwhelmed by the amount of new music out there.

Knowing where to even get started can be a tricky task. No matter what your taste, you'll quickly find that for every reliable source of dope music, there will be a hundred unreliable ones. Based on recs from music critics or even your uncle's Facebook page, you've undoubtedly clicked on some new music and later wished you'd gotten that three minutes of your life back.

But being a music fan isn't just about having your tastes thrown back at you anyway. Sometimes, you want to know what everyone else is talking about. You don't have to love the new Jay-Z album to want to hear it and dissect his lines.

TenDeep, which we'll publish at the end of every month, is not a column intended to tell you what the "best" records of the month are (although sometimes it will). Nor will we solely cover the 10 most-publicized records of a given month.

Instead, our goal is to center the discussion. We want to cover a mix of the most talked-about records and some that deserve more attention, to give people an idea of what new music matters most in the Complex world.

Written by David Drake (@somanyshrimp), Insanul Ahmed (@Incilin), Dave Bry (@davebry9), Ross Scarano (@RossScarano), khal (@khal), and Jacob Moore (@PigsAndPlans)

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PARTYNEXTDOOR, PARTYNEXTDOOR

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Release Date: July 1
Label: OVO Sound

PARTYNEXTDOOR didn't need to release too many songs to get attention: He was down with Drake, and that was reason enough to listen. Consider that the last time Drake introduced us to a singer from Toronto, we put him on our cover before he'd even dropped a proper debut album.

But beyond the OVO affiliation, there are other parallels between PARTYNEXTDOOR and The Weeknd: They're both "mysterious" R&B singers from Toronto. So could PARTYNEXTDOOR do enough to differentiate himself from The Weeknd?

The answer provided by his mixtape is... sort of. He's certainly stylistically influenced by Weeknd and Drake, but has better singing chops. Is this the 2013 House of Balloons? Definitely not. And PARTY's lyrics are more reminiscent of the swagger of someone like The-Dream than Drizzy. But the mixtape does sound like a launching pad for what we think Drake's Nothing Was The Same may sound like. And hey, that's reason enough to check it out. —Insanul Ahmed

Robin Thicke, Blurred Lines

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Release Date: July 30
Label: Star Trak Entertainment, Interscope Records

When it comes to Caucasian soul singers, you'd be forgiven for thinking 2013 was going to be Timberlake's year. And, in fact, JT's album did do some pretty impressive numbers.

But if you ask which singer ran the summer, there can be only one—and that one is Robin Thicke. He spent years building a rep in R&B circles, but out of nowhere, "Blurred Lines" became the crossover song of the summer. The rest of his album is a mix of pop and more traditional R&B sounds. The jazzy "Top of the World" is one such highlight, while "Ooo La La" might be the record's best song: It bubbles along a lush, insouciant disco groove that bests anything on the new Daft Punk album, while Thicke works out his best falsetto MJ imitation. Other tracks have more commercial-friendly credits (Dr. Luke, etc.), but for the most part, Thicke has brought a poised, confident R&B record to the pop charts. Your move, JT. —David Drake

AlunaGeorge, Body Music

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Release Date: July 30
Label: Island Records, Universal Music Group, Vagrant Records

When you hear AlunaGeorge, the London-based duo of singer Aluna Francis and producer George Reid, the music feels like a single, cohesive movement. But when you break their debut album, Body Music, into its composite parts—Francis' singing and Reid's production—you realize that Aluna and George would both be just fine on their own.

Sounding like a combination of Lily Allen and Aaliyah, Aluna Francis isn't the most technically talented singer. But she's got style for days and the kind of voice that slips in and out of a beat instead of always commanding the spotlight. George Reid's production balances the cutting-edge experimentation of European electronic music with accessible melodies. Together, they've made an excellent debut that defies genre classification in the best way—it's pop, electronic, and R&B, all wrapped up in a focused, aesthetically consistent package. In the future, we wouldn't be surprised if George Reid branches out as an electronic superproducer and if Aluna Francis ends up delivering vocals over massive pop hits. For now, we're glad they're together as AlunaGeorge. —Jacob Moore

RL Grime, High Beams EP

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Release Date: July 16
Label: Fools Gold Records

Over the last year, RL Grime has been on a serious roll. If you're looking for some of the best trap in the EDM scene, look no further than his output. Among the hits: His collabs with Salva on the remix of Kanye West and Co.'s "Mercy" and the excellent rework of Jamie Lidell's "What A Shame." When not on his remix grind, RL's on the road, heading out with Baauer for the Infinite Daps tour.

This all led up to this spectacular display of trap's progression, the High Beams EP, which was released—out of the blue—on A-Trak's Fool's Gold imprint. If you're looking for the kind of massive, 808-drenched tracks that have the current crop of EDM fans going mental, you need this EP. He not only linked back with Salva for one of the release's shining moments, "CliqCliq," but called Problem in for the laid-back bounce of "Secondary." Five solid tracks, one huge sound. —khal

Ty Dolla $ign, Beach House 2

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Ka, The Night's Gambit

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Release Date: July 13
Label: Iron Works

As art forms mature, it's cool to watch how their broadened horizons allow for new phenomena. Like this: As hip-hop approaches its 35th birthday, a 40-year old fireman from Brownsville, Brooklyn has just made his second straight minor-masterpiece of a rap album. Last year, Ka's Grief Pedigree gave fans of no-frills New York street rap a most-welcome surprise. Dark, brooding, thoughtful and exquisitely crafted, the album harkened to nothing so much as classic, mid-’90s Mobb Deep. Produced, once again, solely by Ka's own hand, The Night's Gambit builds on that success. Expanding his pallette, slightly, with some brighter musical notes, he doesn't sacrifice an ounce of gravitas. This is rap at its most chilling and hypnotic. —Dave Bry

Joey Bada$$, Summer Knights

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Kevin Gates, Stranger Than Fiction

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Release Date: July 16
Label: Young Money Entertainment, Bread Winners Association, Atlantic Records

Kevin Gates has been a regional star for some time, although in the past few months, he's gained a modest amount of national attention. How? First, he spent time on the guest-spot circuit, culminating in a scene-stealing appearance on Pusha T's The Wrath of Caine. He immediately followed that with the dense, impressive The Luca Brasi Story, which took a pretty epic tack for a free mixtape. Gates' mournful gangster fatalism and gift for melody is on full display on his for-pay follow-up, Stranger Than Fiction, an album-before-the-album in the vein of Kendrick Lamar's Section.80.

It hasn't generated the same level of discussion online as its predecessor—not only was Luca Brasi a well-timed, novel record for unfamiliar listeners, but it was free. That said, Stranger Than Fiction is a strong album which should sustain his growing buzz. Like Luca Brasi, it maintains an easy balance between street-oriented tracks, love songs, and songs which split the difference. In particular, don't miss "Strokin," which builds on particularly catchy production from underrated rising producer Dun Deal. —David Drake

Starlito, Cold Turkey

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Release Date: July 2
Label: Grind Hard LLC

Starlito is your favorite rapper's favorite rapper—or maybe even your favorite rapper's favorite rapper's favorite rapper. He's a writer above all else, a laid-back stylist whose wordplay and stories are carefully considered, with lyrics that weave emotion through subtlety.

Of course, this kind of praise can end up marginalizing an artist, reducing his abilities to a kind of Worthiness Cliche. It's unfair, but it might partially explain why ’Lito remains under the radar of all but the most discerning hip-hop heads. The thing is, at his best, it's really not that difficult to fall for his music. While his last free EP, Attention, Tithes, and Taxes, was heavy on lyricism at the expense of hooks and musicality, his latest full album, Cold Turkey, is one of his most listenable. There's a wistful melancholy to this release, which complements pitch-perfect guests like Don Trip and Kevin Gates. Sometimes it feels like being eternally underrated isn't just a description of his career, but a facet of his persona. —David Drake

Jay Z, Magna Carta Holy Grail

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Release Date: July 4
Label: Roc Nation, Roc-A-Fella Records

Is Magna Carta Holy Grail a good album? Ehh—in this writer's opinion, probably not. And the broader critical response to it has been tepid. However, if you go on Twitter or ask your friends, you might hear differently. But it is worth a listen. Sure, it's a given that you're going to listen to a Jay Z album, because he's probably the greatest rapper of all time. He's also one of the only rappers to remain relevant this deep into a career. Although the marketing of the album became the main talking point, it still holds weight musically. If the album accomplished anything, it made us appreciate Jay's flow. When we read Jay's lyrics before hearing the songs, we were totally unimpressed. But after actually hearing him rap them into something worth hearing, it's a nice reminder about why Jay is Jay. 

So if you haven't listened to it, you should. Why? Because, like it or not, it's what everyone is talking about and you need to have an opinion on it. Don't have time to listen to it? Here's what you say to sound like you know: "I like the beats but Jay Z is so old. I'm tired of hearing Jay rap about Basquiat. Ugh, Yeezus was better." —Insanul Ahmed

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