Mark Corcoran-Lettice discovers a formidable, beautiful and defiant album from art-popsters U.S. Girls
4AD
Released: 16.02.18
The days when Meg Remy, the mastermind behind U.S. Girls, would conjure up relentlessly gritty, lo-fi soundscapes out of banks of cassette players are long gone.
Building on the ambitious studio sound of its predecessor Half Free, In A Poem Unlimited finds Remy floating above sumptuous, dusty soul grooves to deliver strange, liminal narratives of violence, revenge and revolt.
Delivering on both parts of the art-pop combination with aplomb, songs like Mad As Hell and Velvet 4 Sale demonstrate a mastery of pop song writing that puts any actual pop star to shame, whilst simultaneously distorting and corrupting the form from within for her own purposes.
The first truly great album of 2018, In A Poem Unlimited is a formidable, beautiful and defiant work.
