An absolute monster of a dance/pop album that deserves to send Debby Friday stratospheric. Released August 1st.

Born in Nigeria, raised in Canada (though now spending a chunk of time in London as well), Debby Friday won The Polaris Prize – the Canadian equivalent of The Mercury Music Prize, for her debut album Good Luck. That was a very good album. The follow up pushes everything further, bigger beats, bigger tunes and a dynamic range of different vocal styles.

Opener and single ‘1/17’ takes nearly three-quarters of its four minutes to crank up properly. It has a great juxtaposition of the etiquette and realities of modern relationships:

“Poetry and nude selfies
Love the way that you know me
Touch the back of my right knee
Tongue ya down just like Delphi
Skin to skin with no buffer
Write your name on my bumper
Call you babe and my lover
Kiss you hard in the summer”

It almost feels like it shortchanges you with all that build-up, however once it hits that pounding final minute the album then carries on and maintains a very high level of momentum. ‘All I Wanna Do Is Party’ is a high energy banger. There is phenomenal writing from Friday throughout this, she has an excellent understanding of dance and house music and the production throughout is crisp and clean. Friday met Australian Darcy Baylis in 2023 and Baylis has become part of Debby Friday’s live band on guitar, as well acting as producer on this record.

‘In The Club’ is the sort of dancefloor hedonism Confidence Man would approve of. ‘Lipsync’ shows exactly why she is a Sub Pop artist. This would have slotted in well on the soundtrack of The Matrix, the industrial undertones pop up at various points on the album.

The tone of ‘Alberta’ is more reminiscent of fellow Canadian The Weeknd, vocodered power-pop. ‘Higher’ could have been a guitar powered Latin pop tune, here the guitar hook is instead sampled and pushed down into the mix for lengths at a time. It is some of the outside of the box thinking that makes this album such a triumph.

‘Arcadia’ highlights the Canadian nature of the artist with elements in both English and French. ‘Leave’ is quieter, more meditative. Most recent single ‘Bet On Me’ is another highlight, propelling along over a more drum and bass/breakbeat influenced backing. Final track ‘Darker The Better’ reminded me of Canadian Indie supremo Ekkstacy, though with a hint of Basement Jaxx thrown in.

This is a great listen. It takes something special to get me to review a dance or a pop album and this is so much more than just a dance, or just a house, album. It shifts genre boundaries with ease, the lyrics go way beyond standard dance track cliches. Debby Friday is an intriguing artist with a future as bright as the star that she references in the title.