July 03, 2019
Allday will be releasing his third album Starry Night Over The Phone on Friday 12 July. The album contains already released singles ‘Wonder Drug, ‘Protection‘, ‘Lungs‘ and ‘Restless‘ (recently showcased on triple j Like A Version) and will be followed an ‘Allday and Friends’ set at Splendour and an extensive album tour around the country in venues such as the Hordern Pavilion and Festival Hall in August.
Allday – Starry Night over the Phone
REVIEWER – Ben Nicol
In 2014, a 23-year-old Allday dropped his debut album, Startup Cult, and gave Australian hip-hop a much-needed update. Five years later and there’s still something familiar left in Starry Night over the Phone but it’s a far more polished and matured product, with a bunch of American and pop influences to boot.
There are 10 tracks, almost all of which see Allday take his patent hip-hop/pop hybrid sound to greater heights.
Don’t Wanna Push You Away Anymore does away with the hip-hop and doubles down on the pop, with the result being pretty spectacular! You’ll hear plenty of catchy melodies across the Adelaide artist’s third offering, but it’s this track where it peaks.
It takes lines like, “On the way to Australia on a Qantas flight” and “Where’s Wally” (Americans call him ‘Waldo’) during Hold On to remind you that he’s indeed from Adelaide and not California, where he currently resides. Outside of these references, his style of hip-hop is still heavily American influenced.
In fact, it’s hard not to listen to these songs and immediately draw parallels with the likes of Post Malone, Drake and Kanye among other hip-hop artists in North America who have used autotune and moody synths to incorporate pop aspects into their music. Hearing this style through an Australian voice is part of what gives Allday such a unique sound.
Having The Veronicas help kick off the album, while probably great from a marketing point of view, didn’t add a whole lot. The song itself (Restless) is fine but it doesn’t allow the Veronica’s to do much other than repeat the same chorus over and over, which seems like a waste of talent when we’re talking about one of the most recognisable names in Australian pop music. They’re not doing anything wrong, it’s just that the song itself doesn’t allow them to do much at all.
The opposite to this is his collaboration with Lonelyspeck, whose experimental electronic music had a big effect on making See You When I See You sound like a welcomed outlier to the rest of the record.
Allday has helped expand what people think of when the term ‘Aussie hip-hop’ comes to mind and Starry Night over the Phone will help continue to do so in the best way possible.
‘Starry Night Over The Phone’ Track List
SIDE A
1. RESTLESS (FEAT. THE VERONICAS)
2. DON’T WANNA PUSH YOU AWAY ANYMORE (FEAT. JAPANESE WALLPAPER)
3. PROTECTION
4. ATMOSPHERE
5. SEE YOU WHEN I SEE YOU (FEAT. LONELYSPECK)
SIDE B
1. BEST LIFE
2. LUNGS
3. WHAT DO YOU THINK
4. RHYTHMS
5. IF NOT KNOW, WHEN?
6. WONDER DRUG
‘Starry Night Over The Phone’ Release date: 12 July.
Watch ‘Lungs’ here
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