Album Review: Sky'High - Forever Sky'High

Forever Sky'High bears all the hallmarks of a premature release. Saturated with charisma and exploding with ideas, Sky'High's debut album nevertheless lacks the requisite craftsmanship and maturity to warrant too many listens. It's a promising novelty.

This is not to suggest that Sky'High herself is a promising novelty. The Sydney MC is a brutally unique proposition within Australian hip hop. Her heavily-accented flow is often quite raw and simplistic from a technique perspective – but her charisma and creativity is undeniable (Death Row's “Nobody loves me/yeah I ain't Raymond/Time is money/and the bitch ain't paid yet” being but one of many sweet lines on the album). Her flair for hooks and choruses, meanwhile, is largely unmatched in Australian hip hop.

The issue is that she hasn't quite managed to focus her talents yet. Forever Sky'High ping-pongs between styles and ideas without developing any particular approach into a finished product. Producer P-Money does his best to lend a cohesive aesthetic to the album (and he's to be commended for his efforts – rare is an album that can balance blistering grime rhythms with DJ Premier-style hip hop) but even he can't disguise Sky'High's shortcomings or slapdash songcraft. The MC, for example, excels on UK-inspired rhythms (Don Dada, Reign) but fall apart on more locally-flavoured joints (Let's Just).

It's a blitzkrieg of a record – all ideas, all approaches, all at once – and, while that's both impressive and bold, it doesn't really grab the ear or the heart in the long-term. Her next album might, though.