With three Juno Award nominations and as many Polaris Short List appearances, Meghan Remy (the artist behind the U.S. Girls), is a safe bet when it comes to exploratory pop. After being inspired by the soul music and funk of the 70s on the excellent Heavy Light (2020), his new album Bless This Mess bathed in 80s pop for a less impactful result.
Originally from Chicago, Meghan Remy has been established in Toronto for several years. After a series of confidential albums between 2008 and 2012, she made a name for herself in 2015 with the release of Half Free, his first album on the 4AD label. Three years later, she launched In a Poem Unlimited, which combined disco and jazz experimentation with committed texts on the place of women in society. This committed side was still very present on Heavy Lightlaunched before the pandemic in March 2020, and which addressed issues like the climate crisis and economic inequality.
The most marked difference between Bless This Mess and its predecessors is its most personal tone. Not that Remy is not interested in the fate of the poorest, but his concerns are more part of daily life than in the major issues of the world. Admittedly, this new album was conceived in the context of a pandemic, and that is reflected in the themes, as in Screen Face, which talks about love in the age of dating apps. Remy has also become the mother of twins and motherhood is at the heart of this new disc, notably permeating the texts of the title song and Pumpwhich just samples a breast pump.
The musical dressing also ensures that the tone of Bless This Mess appears lighter, which diminishes its striking force, as if Remy were no longer inhabited by this feeling of urgency which marked his music for a long time. Of course, several of the titles invite you to dance, a constant in his work, but the spirit is more carefree than survival. While on Heavy Lightshe relied on historically committed genres to accentuate the subject, the choice to draw on the synth-pop of the 80s calls for a necessarily more playful aspect.
It works very well on some tracks, including the catchy Only Daedalus opening, with its syncopated rhythm and vocal harmonies reminiscent of leading 80s girl bands like the Pointer Sisters. The next one Just Space for Light is in the same spirit, with a languorous first half and a more funky second half, with a Stevie Wonder keyboard and a Badge Époque Ensemble side, her husband Max Turnbull’s band.
Among the highlights, we also note the excellent Futures Betreminiscent of the Prince of the time Purple Rainwith a guitar solo that takes up the first notes of the American anthem, but whose text simply calls for satisfaction with everyday life without asking too many questions about the why and how:
Goodbye history
Why don’t we let it be a mystery
That we never sort out?
– Futures Bet
A few titles are more forgettable, including the skipping So Typically Now, badly served by a mostly electronic instrumentation and an abuse of rhythm machine. Disco-funk inspired, the too long Tux (Your Body Fills Me, Boo) also misses the target a bit with somewhat annoying synth sounds, even if we can’t help but let ourselves be carried away by its frenzied rhythm.
Loved the previous one Heavy Light (it was my favorite in the race for the Polaris Prize in 2020), I was still left a little unsatisfied with this new offering of U.S. Girls. It remains a work of high quality and brilliantly executed, superior to many productions of the genre, but given the career of this exceptional musician, it is not the desired grand cru.