The new U.S. Girls album is out today and it's a wildly accessible record. Scratch It, on 4AD, presents Meg Remy's vision of a kind of indie pop that's also clearly pop-inspired. Lots of this sounds like radio hits from Berlin, The Motels, and even Madonna from an earlier era. And somehow, Meg makes it all work on a few levels at once.
The band here on Scratch It -- Dillon Watson (Savoy Motel, Jack Name, etc.) on guitar; Jack Lawrence (The Dead Weather, The Raconteurs, Loretta Lynn) on bass; Domo Donoho on drums; and both Jo Schornikow and Tina Norwood on keyboards; and the legendary Charlie McCoy (Elvis, Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison) on harmonica -- coalesce around Meg's winsome vocals. Numbers such as early single "Like James Said" (co-written by Rich Morel of Deathfix and Too Much) are spry New Wave-style winners, while a cut like "Firefly on the 4th of July" adds a twang that carries it into a vaguely Americana-ish space. Elsewhere, the epic "Bookends", inspired by the death of Power Trip musician Riley Gale, contains a multitude of emotions in its nearly 12 minutes. Elegiac, there's a little of Wave-era Patti Smith here, and a kind of pseudo-gospel vibe that mixes well with Watson's funky guitar attack. Scratch It closes with "No Fruit", a percolating number rooted in the funk seemingly inspired by Bowie's Thin White Duke era. It's a clear highlight here.
Scratch It is a confounding record in a good way. It's a release that bridges multiple genres, and has a clear mainstream appeal to it. Meg Remy may be operating on the outside of the Top 40, but she makes music that wouldn't entirely sound out of place there. Combine that focus on pleasing listeners with a knack for absorbing the best bits of Eighties New Wave and pop soul and you have an album that sounds, thankfully, like little else today. Dig it!
Scratch It by U.S. Girls is out on June 20 via 4AD.
U.S. Girls will be playing in D.C. on June 22 at The Atlantis.
[Photo: Colin Medley]