Chicago-based singer and record producer Lance Skiiiwalker’s sophomore album, Audiodidactic, deserves praise for its uniqueness but is disappointing by Skiiiwalker’s standards.

Skiiiwalker’s record label, TDE, has been making plenty of noise this past year and he is the latest artist to contribute. The album’s sound is difficult to grasp fully, but it has a mix of psychedelic and R&B undertones accompanied by bouncy drums and atmospheric production. 

Though it is a nicely put-together record, one of its biggest downsides is the poor use of its featured artists. Skiiiwalker features his labelmates Ab-Soul and Isaiah Rashad – which sounds like an amazing idea on paper – but their songs act as interludes. This misused potential is disappointing but shows strength since Skiiiwalker relies on his artistic abilities rather than using his all-star roster of labelmates to make nice music. 

“Friends” sets the album’s tone with a smooth bossa nova ballad. The lyrics on this song and others on the record are clearly not his main focus. Sometimes the vocals seem to be intentionally drowned out by instrumentals, such as on songs like the avant-garde “Ig.” 

Skiiiwalker being both a singer and producer gives him an upper hand in expressing himself that others don’t have, but it also has drawbacks. Musically, the album seems to emphasize world-building and messages above everything else. Conceptually, there is a sense of sentimentality sprinkled throughout the tracklist – in the thoughtful spoken word “Church,” the regret of “Everybody Hurts Somebody,” and the lovesick R&B track “Where To With You.” 

The songs are all admirable but don’t fully hit the mark. “It Was All” is one of the better tracks, but the spacey sounds make it feel empty. The overdone reverb effects make everything appear to be unmixed, and still in the process of being finished.

This album may be an acquired taste for most. The sequences from track-to-track are random and hard to follow while being such a short project.