DEBBY FRIDAY - Death Drive (2019)

Album opener “Tear the Veil” sets the tone. A slow-burning number comprised of little beyond booming electronic beats, the song lays out Friday’s mission simply and plainly: “I want it? I get it/ I said, I want it? I get it.” What she wants on Death Drive is to explore every style on the darker end of the genre spectrum.“Fatal” is a shadowy dance number about the destructive power of love, with serrated synths that cut across a throbbing, hypnotic beat. “Treason” is overtly industrial—four minutes of electrical crackling behind an ominous bass beat and distant, garbled screams. The tone shifts radically on “Good and Evil,” a pulse-quickening raver that opens with rhythmic beat boxing and gradually gains speed until Friday appears with a scream about one minute in, kicking the song into high gear. It’s tempting to read some of this restlessness in the context of her backstory: Friday emigrated to Montreal from Nigeria as a child, and is now based in Vancouver; it’s possible that being in an “in-between” state is where she’s most comfortable. Another way to look at it, though, is in that opening track: whether it’s rave, drill, industrial, or punk—if Friday wants it, she gets it.