Soft Friday

The duo of John Ridgard and Rebekah Wood met at a music venue in Leamington Spa, England. Their debut album, Soft Friday, expands on the promise of “Cast a Shadow,” “Last Desire,” and “Beatings." Here, “Fall Out of Love,” “Fool for Your Face,” and, generally, everything sounds like a duo with a great amount of inspiration and discipline. The British press were enamored. The NME awarded the album a 9 out of 10 and noted all the usual influences, from Nancy Sinatra, The Ronettes, and The Velvet Underground to The Jesus & Mary Chain, Mazzy Star, The Raveonettes, and The Kills, while noting how the duo transcend them in their own peculiar way. American critics felt similarly, discovering Wood's vocals to be as sexy/trippy as the music guiding such tracks as “Let the Sun Go,” “Bad Kick to the Heart,” and “Wake Up.” From start to end, the album flows like one extended mix of hook-filled psychedelic-punk-fuzz-pop.