U.S. Girls - U.S. Girls On Kraak

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4...according to our Brian on Thu 17 Nov, 2011.

When I first heard this I thought "oh no U.S. Girls has gone all Zola Jesus, what a massive bummer". Not that I'm down on Zola, it's just that she has a shocking lack of catchy songs which you need when you go all polished & commercial. Sounding like a nihilistic Kate Bush on PCP and mogadon is fine if you leave the sludge & bare wires intact. Which Meghan Remy has kind of done after a couple of albums of submerged 'n' seriously murky girl group/R'n'B experiments. The tunes are hanging out of their scratchy wool dresses now and getting all sexy on yer ass. And she doesn't really resemble the gothic one, maybe just in some of the ghostly vocal pitches and wails. The album finds it's pace with the excellent 'Island Song' which sounds like Cyndi Lauper hiding in a bin remixed by Laurel Halo. Can you imagine Cyndi Lauper dressed as Oscar the Grouch suddenly popping out of a bin in an alleyway and scaring the shit out of you? I can, it's in your mind too now, I did that. The undoubted highlight here, on this all-too-brief excursion for Belgium's premier experimental label (K-RAA-K)³ is her seriously bent & eerie version of Brandy & Monica's 'The Boy is Mine', one of the finest R'n'B covers i've ever heard, proper chilling stalker style shit. I'm not sure she intended it that way hahahaha..... (nervous laughter) I hope she doesn't come for me, I'm sure our Dave's more her type yo! Loving the pooting ambient bits and especially the experimental retro electronic/R'n'B splicing of 'Friendlies + Pamela + GG', these all contributing to a wildly disturbed and interesting record with some spectacularly strange moments (check the heartbreak country of Wells Dubs)! LP/CD, you need this shit y'all!

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When we first heard the seductive sounds of Meghan Remy's U.S. Girls in 08, we immediately fell in love with both the music and the persona. For her third full length "U.S. Girls on Kraak", this astonishing muse of modern pop music extends her old lo-fi aesthetics into what is her most melodic and radio friendly output so far. Remy's vocal abilities get a major stress on this record, clearly laying bare her sixties girl band and nineties R'nB influences, without losing touch with her early roughness en experimentalism. In barely thirty minutes Remy moves from the hit parade flavoured 'Island Song', over her sublime cover of Brandy & Monica's 'The Boy Is Mine', to an actual classic country song. This is all intertwined with her usual talent for shortsong-writing and raw esoteric scapes. "U.S. Girls on KRAAK" is probably Remy's most accesible work to date, and a highlight in her oeuvre that might mark the end of her 'early years'.

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