Review Summary: Rising Hip Hop star Allday rocks it.
A Skateboard Soiree is a concept album from the Adelaide bred and now Melbourne based hip hop dude Allday. Production is by C1, whom I know little about personally, but he does a bang up job on this one. The album is about coming of age in a new environment, having big dreams and trying to keep that on again off again goddess interested. Allday really wears his heart on his sleeve on this album; see-sawing between sickly sweet pop "Run a Mile" to general autobiographical insecurities "So Good" to getting ***ed up "The City" and some rare swagger on "Harpoon." Whatever flavour he puts out, you get the impression he means it.
Allday has quite a unique voice. It reminds me of the first time I heard Bob Dylan; not sure if I like it or not; but boy I've never heard anything like this. And just like the great man; Allday has me wholeheartedly converted. On the album cover he looks like a fourteen year old kid caught stealing; and this is basically what he sounds like too: a nervous skinny little white boy.
This album has a great sound behind it; pretty impressive considering the album was made for next to no money at all. The percussion, like a lot of hip hop, is often syncopated. What puts it a cut above the rest on this EP is that clearly some attention has gone into the beats selected (check out opener "My World ft. Luke Gray").
The album is a lot of things; an ode to marijuana, a glimpse into a neurotic psyche, a love story; as well as being insanely catchy and full of humour. "To all those people who called me ugly, I hope you get Salmonella from your lunch meat." This is one of those albums an artist makes "before" they become a star; the thing we often forget is how do we define stardom? Fame? Or is it doing something completely unique and owning it?
