U.S Girls - Bless This Mess - Vinyl

The highly anticipated eighth album by U.S. Girls, the nom de plume of North American multi-disciplinary and experimental pop artist Meg Remy, will be released on 24 Februaryentitled Bless This Mess. A dynamic suite of dexterous melodies and a nuanced artistic response to the complexities of motherhood, Bless This Mess was crafted in tandem with the conception and birth of Remy’s twin boys. It expands the sonic and thematic palette of U.S. Girls, fusing the muses of funk, mythology, and the radical disorientation of joy into an electric tapestry of anthems, aches, and awakenings.

As Remy’s body changed so did her voice; her diaphragm lost breathing room, adjusting to the growing lives inside. Many takes on Bless This Mess were tracked with the babies in utero, or in her arms. (She even samples her breast pump on the album’s poetic closing cut, “Pump”). The resulting performances are suffused by the physicality of this journey: more blood, more feelings, the interwoven wonders, and wounds of procreation. 

The ten songs on Bless This Mess were pieced together stem by stem with a vast cast of collaborators (Alex Frankel of Holy Ghost!, Marker Starling, Ryland Blackinton of Cobra Starship, Basia Bulat, Roger Manning Jr. of Jellyfish and Beck,) and audio engineers (Neal H Pogue, Ken Sluiter, Steve Chahley, Maximilian Turnbull). Long-time collaborator, husband, and co-parent Turnbull played a key role facilitating these fluid muses. The production throughout is exquisite, warm, and wood-panelled, framing the voice, keys, bass, and rhythms in heightened textural harmony.

ABOUT U.S. GIRLS

Originally from Illinois, Meg Remy is established as one of the most acclaimed songwriters and performers to emerge from Toronto’s eclectic underground music scene where she currently lives. As the creative force behind the musical entity U.S. Girls, her celebrated discography spans 15 years from early experimental works released on the Siltbreeze label, and includes three Polaris Prize shortlisted albums on 4AD: Half Free (2015), In A Poem Unlimited (2018), and Heavy Light (2020). All three albums also garnered Juno nominations for Best Alternative Album. Meg has toured extensively through Europe and North America, establishing a reputation for politically astute commentary and theatrical performances with her extended U.S. Girls band, leading her to be named the best live act of 2018 by Paste Magazine. During this time Remy has maintained a visual arts practice, exhibited collage work and directed several music videos and other video art works including her short film Woman’s Advocate (2014), in which she also performed. Recently Remy published her first book, a memoir called Begin By Telling (2021). As a platform and persona, U.S. Girls operates on a uniquely out-of-time wavelength, alternately wronged and rueful, classic but contemporary, bruised vignettes of poetic Americana through a feminist lens. Bless This Mess marks both a divergence from and deepening of Remy’s songbook, more at peace with her restless truths and moods.

Tracklisting:

1. Only Daedalus
2. Just Space For Light
3. Screen Face
4. Futures Bet
5. So Typically Now
6. Bless This Mess
7. Tux (Your Body Fills Me, Boo)
8. R.I.P. Roy G. Biv
9. St. James Way
10. Pump