U.S. Girls
Bless This Mess
4/5
4AD 4AD 0506 (CD, LP)
Even by her own shapeshifting standards, U.S. Girls' Meghan Remy has executed some breathtaking gear-changes since 2020's Heavy Light.
Besides a typically withering critique of Father Christmas (seasonal single Santa Stay Home), she has written a memoir (Begin By Telling), sampled Glenn Gould, covered the Birthday Party for a tribute album and more. Along the way, she gave birth to twins and recorded an album, whose title speaks volumes about Remy's ability to transform mighty feats of multi-tasking and politically aware meaning into hallowed art-pop.
Recorded piecemeal with a busy troupe of collaborators, including Marker Starling, Basia Bulat and husband Max Turnbull, Bless This Mess navigates chaos with binding cogency, as befits Remy's quick intuition and intellect. Whether she's evoking Greek myth, assuming the viewpoint of sentient evening wear or extolling breast pumps, the result is an album of playful fluency and precision: never the same between songs and peppered with perspective shifts within songs, but unerringly sharp-eyed in its execution.
Hence opener Only Daedalus, a silky slice of Joan Wasser-ish R&B soul-funk that opens as an opaque reflection on celestial hubris. Gradually, a critique of inheritance seems implicit, with an ovation-worthy lyrical twist on the Icarus myth: "Don't get too high," warns Remy, "on your daddy's supply."
This story is from the March 2023 edition of Record Collector.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the March 2023 edition of Record Collector.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
"Things can go very badly wrong"
But not too often. The Iron Maiden singer, aviator, business mogul and awardwinning everyman, Bruce Dickinson, returns with a new solo album, The Mandrake Project – Top 10 across the planet at the time of writing – and a ton of anecdotes about his extraordinarily successful career. Just don’t try and put him in a box. “I’m not a number, I’m a free man!” he warns Joel McIver.
Out Of The Darkness
Long-anticipated solo debut from Portishead singer is worth the wait
Clearing The Way
The end of an era for Bolan's glam-rock trailblazers.
SOCK IT TO ME DISC-ITS! WHEN TWO TRIBES VINYL AND CD (AND CASSETTE) WENT TO WAR
Dream, if you can, a courtyard. An ocean of violets in bloom. Alternatively, a 1984 record shop and all its pristine treasures. Close your eyes, let’s go there together. What do you see? From chest-level down – vinyl.
Steve Harley 1951-2024
As frontman for Cockney Rebel, the singer-songwriter crafted one of the glam rock era's greatest singles in Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me).
The Collector
Swiss-based Icelander Sunna Margrét is a rising force in experimental pop. Having begun her career as a teenager touring with electro-pop ensemble Bloodgroup, she is about to release her debut full-length solo LP, Finger on Tongue.
She'd only Just gun
With their rapturous harmonies, the Carpenters dominated the 70s’ airwaves, selling over 100 million records with hits like Close To You and Yesterday Once More. But by 1979, lead singer Karen was seeking a new direction… Biographer Lucy O’Brien recounts her attempts to move out of the restrictive environment of the family band that had made her a star
PNEUMATIC FOR THE PEOPLE
Forming in West Berlin in 1980 and achieving their greatest notoriety circa 1984, industrial noise-punks Einstürzende Neubauten have far e xceeded t he i r p ro jec ted l i fe expectancy. Founding frontman Blixa Bargeld traces the evolution of the metalbashing pioneers. Jeremy Allen is all (suitably protected) ears
FRUITS OF THEIR LABOUTES
Bananarama had their first Top 3 hit in 1984, Robert De Niro's Waiting. Rob Hughes meets lifelong friends and bandmates Sara Dallin and Keren Woodward as they look back on their career, album by album
Being Soaring.
In April 1984, the original, faster Bobby Oproduced version of West End Girls was released.
