Bless This Mess

by 
AlbumFeb 24 / 202311 songs, 44m 29s
Pop Soul Synthpop
Popular

Part of the appeal of Meg Remy’s music is that you can think and feel with it in almost equal measure. Inspired by her experience as a new mother (she delivered twin boys in 2021), *Bless This Mess* draws from a similar ’80s-pop Petri dish as 2020’s *Heavy Light* and 2018’s *In a Poem Unlimited*, and with the same mix of gut passion and high-concept remove. Do you need to know, for example, that the after-school-special balladry of “Bless This Mess” was inspired by the punishment of the Danaïdes in Greek mythology? Or that the hypnotic funk of “Pump” came from Remy’s reflections on how motherhood turns the female body into a kind of machine? Not to derive pleasure from them, clinically speaking, but there’s no doubt she wants you to be aware of the conditions she’s working with when it comes to gender, history, and economy, and to recognize pop as a viable way to get there. And if the ideas start to feel heavy, you can always dance them off.

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 February entitled 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. To celebrate the announcement, today U.S. Girls releases the slow jam gem, ‘Futures Bet’ alongside a music video directed by Alex Kingsmill that explores the visual wonder and resiliency of trash. A combination of traditional 3D animation & composited live action footage was fed into various Stable Diffusion deep learning models. Some images in the video have up to 6 passes of the artificial intelligence reinterpretations at various strengths to create the effect. It co-stars Remy and Carlyn Bezic, who also sings on the track and will open for U.S. Girls’ 2023 tour dates under her moniker Jane Inc. 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. ***Pre-orders will include a pin-badge***

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7.8 / 10

Meg Remy’s most free-ranging and least narrative-minded album draws on retro funk and ’80s R&B as it infuses her biting social critique and wry humor with fresh optimism.

5 / 10

7 / 10

Bless This Mess shows U.S. Girls pulling off another intriguing reinvention, one more slickly produced, and built-around retro and upbeat sounds and a sense of uncomplicated buoyancy

The threads of disco and funk that fused with conceptual art rock on previous U.S. Girls songs move into the spotlight on Bless This Mess, the eighth studio album from the ever-morphing project led by mastermind Meg Remy.

8 / 10

On "Only Daedalus," the juicy disco romp that opens U.S. Girls' nervy, synthetic fantasia Bless This Mess, Meg Remy finds herself lost in th...

6.5 / 10

If you view bringing a child into this life as a roll of the dice for their sake, try two on for size. U.S. Girls’ Meg Remy conceived, carried and delivered twins during the pendency of Bless This Mess’ creation.

8 / 10

Of all the tracks featured on ‘Bless This Mess’ - U.S. Girls’ gloriously entertaining eighth outing - it’s perhaps recent single ‘Tux (Your Body

Meg Remy’s life-changing experiences colour a scattershot album that works best the closer it sticks to straightforward pop<br>

8 / 10

Bless This Mess by U.S. Girls: another disco-literate triumph from Meg Remy's mercurial experimental pop project

U.S. Girls’s ‘Bless This Mess’ sign-posts its themes and musical choices but lacks a coherent overall vision. Read our review.

9 / 10

In 'Bless This Mess', U.S. Girls identify funk and R&B grooves as conduits for the very pulse of life. It's brilliantly conceived and executed.

8.5 / 10

Bless This Mess by U.S. Girls Al bum review by Lucas Jones. Their full-length drops on February 24th via Royal Mountain/4AD

43 %

Album Reviews: US Girls - Bless This Mess

83 %

Who says you can’t dance while the world is burning? Someone who would probably groove her way through the apocalypse is Meg Remy, who has been churning out danceable indie pop songs to the tune of shit hitting the fan under the name U.S. Girls for years now, and her last few albums have been

7 / 10