When the outside world tells us (constantly) that we are not welcome, one of the ways to respond is to create our own universe and, from there, rebuild our relationship with the outside world. DEBBY FRIDAY has been doing that as age has given her tools, but GOOD LUCK, the debut album under the Sub Pop label, sounds like the closest approximation to the materialization of that idea: a hybrid and experimental set of songs in coming-of-age mode that owe as much to the industrial preached by JPEGMAFIA (listen to “WAKE UP”) as to r&b territories (in “SO HARD TO TELL” she assures us, without ever verbalising it, that she can reach the level that Fousheé has reached), or even to dance music with pop appeal (from “I GOT IT” we take away that, if he wanted to, she would do Beyoncé better than Chlöe).
To arrive at this lucidity (which sometimes appears distorted or fantasized by… creative issues), the artist (who was born in Nigeria and grew up in Canada, the country where she currently resides) found places of refuge in nightlife-clubbing-DJing. However, the safe havens turned into places of discomfort and the creation of music became an escape, adding other multidisciplinary skills (such as director and astrologer) to find herself in the middle of the crowd (or different communities). Before throwing herself into her debut full-length, the EPs BITCHPUNK (2018) and DEATH DRIVE (2019) were her open-field purges, two ways of understanding herself (with a lot of noise to the mix) and giving us clues as to where her head was at.
In short: fans of Nine Inch Nails and the Deathbomb Arc label really need to keep an eye out for DEBBY FRIDAY. To the rest of you: if you’re looking for a true creative force, it’s here. Good luck to all. (Alexandre Ribeiro)
