Start Up Cult - Allday - Album Review

Two painstakingly long years have been endured by the devoted and diligent fanbase of Adelaide’s very own deadly hip-hop artist AllDay. The charismatic and eclectic nature of Tom Gaynor’s ethereal vocals zoom into one’s ear-canal as they illuminate the majestic merry-go-round that is Start Up Cult, AllDay’s first full length album to date. A departure from the glistening rivers of aural gold that is AllDay’s 2013 EP Skateboard Soirée? Perhaps, but the quintessential nuances of this unique and fresh-faced youngster – exhibited so ardently in exquisite tune ‘So Good’ – have not yet departed us.

The record begins with “Got It”, and what an opening it is – AllDay reiterates to his listeners that he has indeed got it. One dives headfirst into thirty blissfully euphoric seconds of electronica, as if it was recorded underwater, you are floating, floating, floating… when suddenly! You are whisked above sea level onto the shores of real music as Gaynor’s unbelievably unique timbre interrupts this serene stream, encapsulating you with what can only be described as a really good vibe. But here AllDay’s clever musicianship is revealed - contrary to the apparent heaps chill nature of the song, Gaynor in actuality reflects on deep issues which have plagued him in the past. The song torpedoes gently in and out of sombre themes; but a triumphant “Bitches love me / Bitches love me” within the chorus is incredulously comforting; at one point AllDay may have ‘lost it’, but at the conclusion of his respective series of events, he has very much got it again. As expressed, a commendable sense of hope is to be discovered in Gaynor’s above par lyricism.

In a society which has been conservative about everything since the beginning of time, AllDay boldly pushes boundaries with his track, ‘Fuckin’. An entire song about sex itself might be viewed as controversial – daresay revolutionary – in the current social, economic and political climate of the world. So who better than AllDay, the Vladimir Lenin of Australian Hip-Hop, to construct such an honest hymn, such a raw hymn? Be not fooled: this is no superficial drone. Gaynor discusses sex as an escape, a release from the desolate landscape of his torturous, tumultuous and troublesome life. The bass drops gradually, slowly, it takes its time; a metaphor for the act – here AllDay reveals again his ability to truly connect music and lyrics and mould them into one entity. Amidst a groundbreaking sample of something which sounds groundbreakingly like pornography (who knows what Gaynor will come up with on a highly desirable second LP), he muses, “When life was suckin’ / Fuck that we fuckin’”

The most thrilling sector of the orange that is Start Up Cult is undoubtedly “Right Now”. This pop gem exhibits the pop sensibilities which Tom Gaynor so effortlessly has at hand. “Turn the lights out / Turn the lights out” – already, here is a breezy summer pop anthem which ignites vivid imagery so strongly relatable to the lifestyle of the youth that AllDay is here to represent, the youth that AllDay is a part of, the youth that AllDay simply is. With the mere line “All the fucked up shit we do” – one sees instantly the silver moon of boxed wine (and its black crater); the technicolour light show that is a case of pre-mixed drinks. Look beyond these frivolities and without doubt, Tom is also looking at the bigger problems infiltrating the placenta of feeling within the youth of the post-ironic world. “Do you even like the bands that you listen to?” Gaynor demands. This may seem like a simple question. In reality, it is an urgent cry, a call for help, a want for sanity from the incessant urge to fit in. The 13-25 year old self has become empty, brimming with excessive mass media culture whose subscription this tortured self does not necessarily enjoy. Tom Gaynor himself is crying, calling, wanting.

The outstanding garage-band level production exhibits blatantly AllDay’s extreme aptitude for connecting with his audience, a glimmering badge of norm-core reminding us that AllDay is still as chill as ever. Outrageously intimate, delicately raw, beautifully contradictory, hauntingly visceral, stunningly current, amazingly broken… a true ode to Tom Gaynor himself, the skateboard rolling along the path of life – Start Up Cult is a triumph for the modern age of revered Australian Rap. It is, if anything, So Good.

Review by Jessica Syed

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