The Starrr Of The Queen Of Life
Nigerian Canadian dynamo DEBBY FRIDAY took home the Polaris Music Prize for her 2023 debut *Good Luck* by channeling a lawless, anything-goes spirit where R&B melodies were genetically spliced with industrial-shocked electronics and dissonant post-punk textures. However, after relentless touring landed her in the sickbed with shingles, FRIDAY hit the pause button and refocused her energies into music that forsakes her jarring, genre-mashing juxtapositions for a more holistic, healing aesthetic. With *The Starrr of the Queen of Life*, she embraces rave-based therapy, and for a quick vibe check, look no further than the album’s back-to-back bangers “All I Wanna Do Is Party” and “In the Club,” which respectively deploy chirpy dance-pop hooks and sleazy ghettotech beats to help you exorcise your anxieties on the floor. But if the album sands off some of *Good Luck*’s jagged alt-rock edges, it’s still teeming with FRIDAY’s signature DGAF bravado, whether she’s flexing her rap flow amid the strobe-lit acid-house delirium of “Lipsync” or reasserting her self-worth on the euphoric, breakbeat-powered statement of purpose “Bet on Me.”
Debby Friday’s pace and stamina throughout The Starrr Of The Queen Of Life is spot on, with enough of a range of eclectic music styles to make it a curious, and engrossing listen.
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The Starrr of the Queen of Life by DEBBY FRIDAY album review by Leslie Ken Chu for Northern Transmissions. Now Out via Sub Pop/Royal Mountain
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