Debbie Gibson - Girls Night Out

Buy Girls Night Out here and here (Amazon GB/Amazon US)

Currently wowing lucky crowds across the USA on the multi-artist #MixTapeTour, pop legend, star of stage & screen and all around good egg Debbie Gibson releases a brand new song to add to her extensive and endlessly satisfying repertoire. Girls Night Out manages to not only sound like classic Ms Gibson but skilfully blends 80s rock radio influences with contemporary dance grooves. Embracing a new model of music that has changed the way pop is delivered, Debbie has released some corking tunes over the past few years - those inspired by her TV movies (Promises, Wonderland and the still effervescent Your Forever Girl), sizzling collaborations (RCVR with Big Black Delta; I am Peaceman with Sir Ivan) and hot new bops over on her We Could Be Together boxset (Cougar; Dance Dance and Brit-pop chart smash in the waiting, Pop Circus). If it seems to you she is on a creative role, well you would be right and Girls Night Out is an irrepressible addition to this continuing canon. The song starts with these hypnotic synth chords and mesmerising chimes providing a beguiling backdrop to Debbie singing about the frisson of exhilaration one gets on a thrilling night with your besties. What this gradually textured and swelling introductory score does is immerse the listener into the pulsing beat of the music, artfully conjuring up images of swirling lights and swaying bodies as if you are right there in the club. It builds a tension, that sense of anticipation that means when the chorus does drop it is blissful release into pop nirvana. And what a chorus it is - an instant anthem of sing-along glee, fuelled by riveting guitar riffs and a propulsive percussion that has you shimmying along in ecstasy. Witty and insightful lyrics make this not just for the ladies - "hands in the air/shoes on the ground/just one more round". This is everyone who has found their people they can just let themselves go with and lose themselves in a soaring song and the magic of the moment being shared with the folks you love. A blistering devil horns, guitar hero inspired middle 8 is one of her finest (since that opulent sax breakdown in Should've Been The One), thrusting you into one last decadent run through of that hand-clap, fist-pumping refrain. If you are left breathless and craving for more then the song has done its job. Utterly intoxicating.