What makes DEBBY FRIDAY the most intriguing songwriter, producer and performer today is her use of turning a scary intensity into something sensual for the listener. From her music to even her tweets, you really do get the idea that she will strike you cold in the same place where she will kiss the bloody wounds. From Bitchpunk to Death Drive, each industrial rap album she releases feels like if intrusive thoughts were blaring as loudly as the synths underneath the words. Good Luck digs a little deeper into that.
Before she dives into such thoughts, she interrogates herself saying “Don’t you fuck it up” on the title track. But this may also, as well, be a warning to those eager to take a dive into an emotionally open album. “So Hard to Tell” opens with a sample before taking time to console her younger self. “You’re just a young girl all alone by yourself/in the city, act like you don’t need help,” sings Debby over an otherworldly, bubbly synth and distorted vocals. But don’t think all this introspection means she has done away with her ability to channel intense feelings and emotions into something sensual. She refers to herself as “Freaky Friday, Debby Doomsday” on “I Got It” and creates the most fuckworthy track you’ll hear in “Heartbreakerrr.”
If you have heard a DEBBY FRIDAY album before, the theme of channeling feelings into something both sexual and empowering is both not new and no less exhilarating in her directness. This is an album where such dominatrix tendencies also tend to give way to a real life feeling of regret and ruin. She isn’t afraid to put those feelings side by side. Right next to an album interrogating her darker side on the bluesy “Let U Down,” she lets past controlling lovers know straight up that she “owes you nothing” on “Pluto Baby.” In the same song, she proclaims that she “loves to love,” but for about as long as that love will come some hurt, she acknowledges that she would rather do the hurting. Anything that means that she can remain in control of what she is a part of.
It’s obvious the music is great, but if, like me, you were expecting a more streamlined journey into Debby’s unpacking of complicated and volatile feelings, you may not get that. But this album does let us into some deep emotions that color the landscape to make it a really solid listen. Don’t be surprised if what you get here keeps you feeling curious about what she might reveal to you next on another outing.
