With over a decade of experience, four studio albums, and plenty of awards and certifications to boast, Australian vocalist Allday has refound his passion for rap with his newest EP, Excuse Me, featuring his latest single ‘Racetrack’ and three other never heard before songs; ‘Splash’, ‘Britney Spears’, and ‘Crazy Trees (ft. Jade Alice)’.
Allday’s last studio album saw him transition to an indie style, trying to rediscover his love of hip-hop, particularly in the Australian scene. Recent collaborations with big international hip-hop acts like Snøw, Ouse, and Skizzy Mars would have been a driving force behind his return to rapping.
‘Runtrack’ opens the EP. The song borrows influence from Allday’s second and third albums, Speeding and Starry Night Over The Phone, through pulsing bass that lurks through the track with synths and an underlying trap beat tickling energy to the more low-key, vibey style Allday has rapped in through those albums. ‘Runtrack’ also features an accompanying electric guitar, leaking in from his indie days, Drinking with My Smoking Friends.
Cohesively, the instrumentation really works around Allday’s vocals. They rap about a lost relationship, one the protagonist has left to protect his partner. The lyrics paint that he left the relationship to protect her from changing too much, maybe losing her innocence. It’s quite a bittersweet track, sad she’s gone but happy she’s safe. You can tell the protagonist truly cares for his ex-lover through Allday’s delivery, cradling vocals through the chill instrumentation.
‘Splash’, the second track of the EP, takes a lo-fi approach, likely inspired from his time with Snøw and Ouse who frequent lo-fi beats for their bars. Australian artist Golden Vessel produced the beat for Allday, ‘Wonder Drug’ being a previous work of theirs.
The song is slow, leaving room for Allday’s melancholic drawn out notes, some of which haunt in the beat, swaying in and out of the sunlight, curtains in the wind. Elements like these voices and the physical pool splash effect make the track feel homegrown, like they come from a place from the heart, like we’re living in the protagonist’s atmosphere.
The track is quite gloomy focusing again on a breakup, however, this one has gone a little different, the two fight, kiss, and makeup in a seemingly endless cycle, so they ditch the relationship. Now the protagonist is left sorting out their emotions, reminiscing on their times together. Allday concludes the ex is like a pool splash, beautiful whilst it’s happening but dissipates quickly when momentum is lost.
Allday's EP art for 'Excuse Me'
‘Britney Spears’ is the third track on Excuse Me whose title directly refers to the 2000s popstar of the same name. The song's lyrics have references galore from her popular music across her career. “It’s Britney bitch.” “Oops I did it again.” Allday often, like many rappers, interjects pop culture he’s grown up with into his songs. It gives them a familiar face so people won’t be deterred by his music if they’re listening for the first time. The instrumentation is inviting, the stringy acoustic and a similar trap beat, reminiscent of midwest emo and trap respectively.
It lays down an old but good blanket down to lay the vocals over. The song also features a verse from a female vocalist. It’s unclear to me who this is, however if I had to guess it would either be a Britney Spears sample or a vocal sample producer Lou Xtwo has picked up through his time creating music. Besides that, the vocal adds a tonally dark verse, adding a creepy element to the song. During the female vocalist’s verse, a piano, playing chords, and backing vocals builds in reducing the guitar and trap beat into little to none of both of those elements. It creates contrast, giving this section a shining star for how it’s presented.
The final song in the EP is ‘Crazy Trees’, which features Melbourne dream-pop artist Jade Alice, who takes the helm for the chorus. This song also features the trap sound a few of the other songs feature, but has softer instrumentation with a cute bell synth, whose range is spread over multiple octaves.
It creates another worldly atmosphere, that of which is from a dream, likely coming from Jade Alice’s library of sounds used for her own music. It complements the trap beat surprisingly well, mixing well with the vocals. Jade Alice’s vocals are distorted and pitched up, closer to those you’d hear in a hyper-pop song. She sings “I’ll go crazy if you leave.” The lyrics work well with her distorted pitched up vocals, as it shows she’s starting to already go crazy, getting up onto her high horses. Allday raps about his journey up to now, and that he’s thinking bigger into the future, hopefully a good omen for the future of his career.
Overall, Excuse Me is a glimpse into the future of Allday’s music career. The four songs are all hits for house parties and live shows to come, of which, his Early Christmas Present Tour is kicking off in Caloundra on November the 3rd. The EP is definitely worth a listen, even if rap isn’t your thing, it gives a great perspective of the softer side of the genre.
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