We do try to be timely, sometimes, at least in days of the week…
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[6.43]
Iain Mew: A bed of the best icy vintage synths serves as counterpoint to a delicious coo of infatuation and anticipation. Eventually she sinks beyond the point where being able to make out individual words is necessary. Gorgeous, sweet, and really sexy.
[9]
Pete Baran: A hipster-friendly, NYC loft-dwelling, ’80s electronic version of Rebecca Black’s “Friday.”
[7]
Jer Fairall: Journal of Ardency, the debut EP by Class Actress, was fascinating mainly for how it found a band working out the kinks of a sound that picked up the tread of Blondie’s disco metamorphosis and followed it through the next three decades of stylistic variants; that the disc ended with a bumpy LCD Soundsystem-style electro-jam was the most logical of conclusions. On the new Rapprocher, the kinks have all been worked out, leaving the sound newly streamlined, professional and more than a little dull. “Weekend” is typical of an album that knows nothing other than typical, Elizabeth Harper’s breathy coo floating over a light crunch of a beat and a bank of synths that sound ready to evaporate as surely as this song does the moment it finishes.
[5]
Hazel Robinson: I don’t believe this woman does any work during the week.
[6]
Anthony Easton: This piece of Euro-fluff has been nowhere near work or near church. Riffing through all the obvious referents, this works so hard to be appearing not to work — it mentions the weekend instead of a congenial party-all-the-time vibe, and then the falsetto near the end. All of it makes a kind of interesting prole Pet Shop Boys, but I always got the impression that the Boys at least knew their Keynes, and Class Actress knows nothing but slumming.
[4]
Brad Shoup: It’s so much about that chorus, in which the hard water of the programming — bearing familial resemblance to “99 Luftballons” — gets whipped to a zestful foam. And although Elizabeth Harper has lately discovered the bottomless need in so much pop, the details about her partner making her late for work and church (!) are smaller-scale gems. There’s no tease in her phenomenal performance, just invitation. The “hard on me” bit is a little too on-the-clit, but you it’s hard to remain lovers without a safe place for silliness.
[8]
Katherine St Asaph: There’s so much in “Weekend” that pisses me off: the implication that Elizabeth Harper going from earnest, decent singer-songwriter to ghost in a synthpop machine is a change in quality, not just aesthetics; the other synthpop groups (and earnest singer-songwriters) ignored for this; the tease of a band name; the bigger tease of “you make it so ha-hard on me” and the fact that Elizabeth’s idea of seduction is panting and squinching her voice into the cadences of a four-year-old; the fact that this appeals to many, many guys; how smart this all is. Because it is smart. Its synths are immaculate. The church line is primo bait, even more so when the congregation in question is clearly this one. “Bring on the weekend,” as a chorus, is perfect, both ensuring party play and furthering the theme. Problem is, there’s a certain word for that pull in a new relationship that makes you write off the week and burrow in an unmade bed, partner in your clutch, and spend the days lying inert, unwilling to pull away, leave, move or live. It’s not love; it isn’t even infatuation. It’s lethargy. I think Class Actress barely grasps this, but I know their audience won’t.
[6]