U.S. Girls release new album ‘Bless This Mess’

U.S. Girls have released ‘Bless This Mess’ the highly anticipated eighth album from the experimental pop project of North American multidisciplinary artist Meg Remy. The new album is a dynamic suite of dexterous melodies and a nuanced artistic response to the complexities of motherhood, 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. 

Bless This Mess features previously released singles: disco masterpiece Tux (Your Body Fills Me, Boo), slow jam gem Futures Bet, diva-era ballad Bless This Mess, and summer synth anthem So Typically Now.

Bless This Mess has already been celebrated by international media, including, Northern Transmissions who enthused, “Remy casts her net of collaborators wide, drawing on a range of influences for this latest opus…Without a doubt, the star of ‘Bless This Mess’ is Remy’s dynamic vocal delivery, a testament to her exceptional talent as a vocalist and lyricist…Remy rises like a phoenix reborn, delivering an album that is both cohesive and remarkable.” 

Exclaim feature Remy in their High 5 feature this month celebrating U.S. Girls catalogue and collaborations – as ranked by Meg.

Listen to Meg discuss the new album, raising twins, parenting perspectives, provocative new music videos, progress and private property, Daedalus, Icarus, and Stanley Kubrick, the irrational fear of death, surviving vs. coping, home videos and social media performances, dancing again, exciting future plans, and much more, on her fifth appearance on show with Vish Khanna on Kreative Kontrol.

As Remy’s body changed throughout the pregnancy, 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.

’Bless This Mess’ Track List

1. Only Daedalus
2. Just Space For Light
3. Screen Face feat. Michael Rault
4. Futures Bet
5. So Typically Now
6. Bless This Mess
7. Tux (Your Body Fills Me, Boo)
8. RIP Roy G Biv feat. Marker Starling
9. St James Way
10. Pump feat. Alanna Stuart

LISTEN TO/GET ‘BLESS THIS MESS’ HERE.

U.S. Girls have North American tour dates kicking off April 13, 2023 in Montreal with stops including Brooklyn and wrapping with two hometown nights at Velvet Underground in Toronto on April 27 + 28. A full list of tour dates is below and ticket information found here.

U.S. GIRLS 2023 Tour Dates

April 13 – MONTREAL, QC, CANADA, Centre PHI
April 14 – BOSTON, MA, USA, The Sinclair
April 15 – PHILADELPHIA, PA, USA, The Foundry
April 17 – BROOKLYN, NY, USA, Elsewhere
April 18 – WASHINGTON, DC, USA, Union Stage
April 21 – CHICAGO, IL, USA, Lincoln Hall
April 27 – TORONTO, ON, CANADA, Velvet Underground
April 28 – TORONTO, ON, CANADA, Velvet Underground
All shows w/ Jane Inc.

More about U.S. Girls

Originally from Illinois, Meg Remy is established as one of the most acclaimed songwriters and performers to emerge from Toronto’s eclectic underground music scene where she currently lives. As the creative force behind the musical entity U.S. Girls, her celebrated discography spans 15 years from early experimental works released on the Siltbreeze label, and includes three Polaris Prize shortlisted albums on 4AD: ‘Half Free’ (2015), ‘In A Poem Unlimited’ (2018), and ‘Heavy Light’ (2020). All three albums also garnered Juno nominations for Best Alternative Album. Meg has toured extensively through Europe and North America, establishing a reputation for politically astute commentary and theatrical performances with her extended U.S. Girls band, leading her to be named the best live act of 2018 by Paste Magazine. During this time Remy has maintained a visual arts practice, exhibited collage work and directed several music videos and other video art works including her short film ‘Woman’s Advocate’ (2014), in which she also performed. Recently Remy published her first book, a memoir called ‘Begin By Telling’ (2021). As a platform and persona, U.S. Girls operates on a uniquely out-of-time wavelength, alternately wronged and rueful, classic but contemporary, bruised vignettes of poetic Americana through a feminist lens. ‘Bless This Mess’ marks both a divergence from and deepening of Remy’s songbook, more at peace with her restless truths and moods.