Album Review - CMX - Aura (RYM AotW)

Last year when Onelazycracka started with the album of the week, I managed to get a spot on the second week of November. I had a whole year to think what I could put up for you to bite on. I thought I could go for an average indie album (A Bourgeois Kitten), or focus on representing my geographic or language area. My favorite album for my country is made by a Honduran guy for Hondurans (Hablo Español), than Panama's Cienfue latest was quite good (Macho de Monte Suite), or I could "play safe" by choosing Cafe Tacvba's "Re", which many non-Spanish speakers ignore. However back then I wouldn't have thought I was to spend the second half of the year and the first of the next one in a country in North Europe called Finland.

Music is one of my main interests, and what better way to learn where to go than through the RYM custom charts? Through I got to know the excellent 90s psychodelia of Kingston Wall, and the more Finnish Häntä koipien välissä, which might have been my first choice if I had it in my collection, but I decided to accept the first week of the year, so then I would feel well about making my contribution to the AotW.

I'm not gonna lie, I bought Aura without any previous knowledge of the band, I had not even heard the unfamous Talvikuningas back in 2007 when it beated Radiohead for a month, therefore, this was a hard rock(by this I mean stone) to digest. Now, 6 months into Finland and life in Finland, and some listens to Aura as well as some other Finnish music, and maybe, just maybe, I'm already starting to Finizise myself in the sense I'm really loving this album. Below, I will try to expose the good things that make me like this album, but I must also point out, that those might be utterly unaccountable, and as ESR said on the thread that the reason behind this album's love is the memories associated with them.

As someone else already pointed out, the opening song creates a very nice welcoming and mysterious atmosphere, one which is complete broken down by a nasty, sludgy bass line on sametinpehmeä, accompanied by some can I say uglyly nice or nicely ugly vocal delivery, it might not be lullaby-like, but it fits perfectly, Elokuun kruunu is another good catchy song and the ballad Ruoste is one of the album's highlight, which is instantly contrasted by the rock/tango fusion of Women Dance Tango. But if there is one song that really wins me out, it has to be Kultaamio, specially when it just breaks into the chorus. The last third after this, might lag just a little below the quality level, though it might also just be it is still digesting completely.

Whichever of the two contradicting sides you take, saying Aura is too experimental and senseless, or it is too grungy, and like many other bands, you might have to admit this is not an easy album to digest, and you just might need to give it some more listens, however, when you don't live in the country where it comes, you might need some other motivator to do so.

CMX - Kultanaamio