U.S. Girls
Location: Chicago, Illinois, USA
Genre: Pop, Art Pop, Hypangogia, Hauntology
Years Active: 2007 -
Real Name: Meghan Remy
Meaning of the Name: Refers to "American" girls. Can also be read as meaning "us" girls, giving it a collectivist/feminist slant.
Way of Working: She hires musicians for touring/studio work
Associated: Slim Twig
Essential Releases
Half Free (2015)
A cinematic and haunting album with pop melodies.
In a Poem
Unlimited (2018)
More upbeat and accessible, still artistic in theme. Danceable music with depth
The soloist Meg Remy releases music using the plural moniker U.S. Girls, signalling a broad social perspective about American feminism that is refracted through the prism of the individual. This tension, between the one and the many, is also palpable in her later work. Since her sixth album In A Poem Unlimited (2018), Remy has played with a heaving live band of up to twenty people, yet she retains total creative control.
While not strictly autobiographical, Remy's music is raw and visceral. Her songs are exposés of trauma left to fester beneath scar tissue. During her troubled younger years, the singer's drone-laden experimental projects were chaotic and dissonant; the fact that these records were made in isolation speaks to their nature, as tortured battles with an abusive past.
In her memoir, Begin By Telling (2021), Remy juxtaposes her life as a rape survivor with recollections of cultural moments, such as the Clinton/Lewinsky affair (abuse of power) and Operation Desert Storm (killing for profit), linking personal injustice to the wider failure of social systems. Her music operates on the same frequency.
Half-Free (2015), for instance, with its misty haze and claustrophobic synths, explores the endurance required to survive perpetual cycles of abuse, both internal and external. Externally, women are pressured to meet unrealistic beauty standards ('Woman's Work'); internally, they make the same mistakes as their sisters by dating microbial organisms masquerading as men ('Sororal Feeling'). The devastating lyrics of the latter include:
"I'm gonna hang myself. Hang myself from the family tree."However, Remy's multifaceted songs are venomous as well as melancholic. While her work is often backwards-facing in a personal sense (she is now happily married), it also exists firmly in the present. She takes aim at religious corruption, such as when St. Peter demands sex in exchange for access to heaven in the song 'Pearly Gates', as well as war profiteering in 'Rosebud', and the hollow promises of late-stage capitalism in '4 American Dollars'. Once again, the singer correlates the unhealthy behaviour of the individual with broader social decline.
Remy’s most-acclaimed work possesses an ethereal quality, using repeating patterns to hypnotise the listener into a trance. It's a seduction of sorts; once the listener is enthralled, they are exposed to the dead-eyed realism of a disillusioned singer who has survived to tell a sordid tale.
It's strange that disillusionment is perceived negatively, when to be free of an illusion is to see things as they are. Comforting lies are still lies. To overcome a problem, first it must be confronted. Meghan Remy works to this very end, casting a haunting glance as she performs barefoot, ensuring her physical connection to every note that vibrates through the floor. Ultimately, the body keeps the score.
Skills
*This is a work in progress. Values are subjective.Emotional Impact
80
Mental Impact
70
Originality
75
Artistry
85
Authenticity
75
Live
80
Production
75
Musicianship
80
Singing
75
Songwriting
75
Danceability
70
Fun
65
Consistency
60
Range
80
Cool
60
Charisma
55
Commercial & Critical Success
Awards >>>
- Juno Award Nominee x2: Best Alternative Album of the Year
- Polaris Music Prize Nominee x1
Certifications
Charts
Critics >>>
- Pitchfork - Heavy Light - The Best Albums of 2020: 15th
