Gotta get down on… Wednesday. Earlier this week, viral pop star Rebecca Black tweeted she’d been “cooking up a special remix” of her marmite 2011 chart hit ‘Friday’, featuring “some iconic people”. Since then, pop stans have gone into overdrive. Luckily, they’re unlikely to be disappointed by this glitched-out hyper-pop overload.
Undeniable, though, is the track’s earworm catchiness, so a hyper-pop remix 10 years later perfectly captures the current zeitgeist. Black’s choice of collaborators is a full circle merging of two disparate decades too: US crunkcore duo 3OH3!! also ascended in the early-2010s and recently returned with 100 gecs collaboration ‘Lonely Machines’, while Black collaborated with alt-pop experimentalist Dorian Electra on last year’s ‘Edgelord’ and New Orleans rapper Big Freedia featured on Charli XCX’s 2019 track ‘Shake It’.
Packing an awful lot into just three minutes, ‘Friday’’s maximalist makeover is, sonically, a million miles from the original. With unmistakable production from 100 gecs’ Dylan Brady, Black’s vocal is sped-up and injected with helium to chiptune levels to the point that it’s hardly recognisable, especially over a pounding bass kick and pixelated synth line.
Right from Big Freedia’s stadium-sized namecheck introduction, shouting out each collaborator over Brady’s pogo-ing donk beat, it’s impossible not to get sucked in and hyped up. Even though clubs remain shut (criminal, considering a banger of this magnitude is primed to lift spirits and unite strangers in sweaty venues), Freedia’s rallying cry – “it’s the fucking weekend people… it’s Fridayyy!”, deliriously shouted through a megaphone into a party-less abyss – certainly doesn’t fall on deaf ears.
Then, short and snappy live-for-the-weekend verses from Electra (who reminisces on fun times with friends over computerised synths and crunching, metallic snares), 3OH3! (12 seconds of weekday-hating nostalgia blasted atop fuzzy distortion) and Big Freedia (who encourages you to “let your freak flag fly!” over an elastic SOPHIE-style beat) flash by at lightning speed. Each delivered with a tongue-in-cheek wink, there’s endless replay value here.
Although this unashamedly fun remix is landing at a time when house parties are criminal, weekdays merely merging into weekends, it’s also a throwback to far easier, worry-free times – something that’s much needed right now. Best jump onboard this serotonin-boosting rollercoaster ride, then, eh?