Review Summary: Meghan Remy's Follow-up To In A Poem Unlimited Goes More Introspective But Feels More Like A Technical Downgrade
Before I take a look at Heavy Light let's turn the clocks back to the start of 2018. It was a bit of a quiet start to the year in terms of new album releases. During the first two months of 2018 I really found myself digging MGMTs Little Dark Age, Car Seat Headrest's re-makeover of Twin Fantasy and also semi-enjoyed the Anthony Fantano-promoted JPEGMafia's Veteran. But despite that, none of those records really struck a strong chord with me aside from the odd single on each.
Then among the crowd of major first quarter releases, In A Poem Unlimited came out on February 16th, 2018 and it was absolutely fantastic.
It almost seemed to come out of nowhere for me. The solo project of Toronto-born songwriter Meghan Remy, U.S. Girls had been with 4AD as a "kinda" lesser known act on their roster after the release of 2015s Half Free and while many indie music reviewers knew what U.S. Girls was I certainly didn't. But I'm kinda glad I didn't, because discovering In A Poem Unlimited was such a delight to where it's still one of my favourite albums from the 2010s.
Now we're back to today, over 2 years after In A Poem Unlimited and Meghan Remy comes out with her newest LP under the U.S. Girls moniker in Heavy Light. Right away its apparent from the album artwork and the lead singles 4 American Dollars and Overtime (a re-make of an older track Remy produced in the early 2010s) that it's going to be a sizeable amount different from her break-out record. Heavy Light focuses more on introspective, dealing with themes of internal pressure from the onlook of others to a continued critique of the Western socio-political landscape. Despite how I felt about the opening two tracks when they were released as singles, to which I found both were serviceable but not really notable from the highlights on Remy's past two albums, I was very excited for this album's release especially from the promises a 20 member ensemble band might give to bolster the stellar instrumentation on In A Poem Unlimited. But sadly, Heavy Light just didn't hit anywhere close to the same highs that the former album did for me. I will note though that my perspectives simply come from someone who's mostly listened to Remy's previous record and has only done some glances at her earlier albums. My thoughts aren't coming from someone who's been a big listener of Remy's music for a while so take my thoughts with a grain of salt.
The opening track, 4 American Dollars, keeps a similar vibe to a lot of tracks on In A Poem Unlimited with some funky percussions and bouncing bass played along with Remy's laid-back bluesy vocals and is a solid song but I don’t think it's as strong as tracks like Mad As Hell, Rosebud or Rage of Plastics off her last album. Overtime is decent with some nice soulful vocal harmonies and a nice mix of booming bass and toms with some slick guitarwork that is further intrigued by some great change-ups and the progression of synths and that awesome sax lead-in to make for a very satisfying lead single. Iou, a piano and synth-led ballad, is alright but Remy's vocals as the focal point doesn't really seem to work as she's not a standout vocalist to make this kind of song work in her favour.
Advice To Teenage Self, the first of 3 minute long monologues on this album, is a collection of people telling their past selves advice on being themselves and not worrying. The other 2 monologues on Heavy Light, The Most Hurtful Thing and The Color Of Your Childhoom Bedroom, seem to again deal with self-reflection on hurtful things said to them that stuck with them in their lives and then finishes with those same people talking about what their childhood bedroom walls looked like describing colours and shapes. To be honest, I don't know why the last monologue was included in this album or even why these monologues were included in this album at all. It was a "feature" that I really didn't care for on In A Poem Unlimited and now instead of just 1 intermission there's 3 with the last one seemingly adding absolutely nothing to the album and it sucks.
State House (It's a Man's World) is another re-made track from Remy's early discography and has some fantastic soul harmonies yet again playing over a xylophone synth lead that gives a great gospel vibe which devolves into gain-led insanity and transitions into the track Born To Lose which continues the xylophone synth and gospel harmonies but also adds in more of the African-esqe percussions and almost SMiLe-era Beach Boys-like haunting pianos that make it probably my favourite track on the entire album despite it still being quite different then the styles I liked on In A Poem Unlimited. And Yet It Moves seems to mix a synthtronic lead with some almost Latin-inspired vocal timings and percussions which are interestingly jazzy and makes for a solid deep cut.
Denise, Don't Wait probably has one of my favourite intros in the album with a great mix of xylophone lead, haunting vocals and percussions that remind me a lot like a weird mix of Brian Wilson classics like Wind Chimes and Caroline, No but with a more current indie pop structure but the song never seems to evolve or become as bombastically catchy as either of those tracks and falls a bit flat in that sense. Woodstock '99, another re-worked track, is another one of Remy's vocal-forward tracks that works better then Iou as it evolves well into a fun chorus-pedal ladden guitar that ends way too early and feels kind of unfinished or unrealized in a way.
The final two tracks on the album, The Quiver To The Bomb and Red Ford Radio feel very typical and not very playful at all like some of the album's earlier tracks and don't really seem to add anything new to end this album on a good note. The former has this weird Meatloaf-y operatic vibe that goes into another indielectronica jam that doesn't seem to work well and seems kind of like typical late 2000s pop rock. The latter is a continuing booming drum beat that gets kind of boring after a while, which is something I never expected to say when listening to this album but it just feels lazy and I know that Remy can do far better but her final repeating lines "I'd do anything to get out" is exactly how I feel at the finale of the 2nd half of this album.
Maybe this album just wasn’t for me, maybe it's wasn't written for anyone but Meghan Remy herself as she reflects on her life and the experiences she's had among herself and observing those around her suffering from similar difficulties, but from a compositional point-of-view this just feels like a downgrade from In A Poem Unlimited. It's not a bad album by any means but it leaves a lot to be desired from those who enjoy Meghan Remy's electronic compositions. They seem almost non-existent in this album and the fun and energy of even Half Free seems to have faded away to where the appeal of U.S. Girls' sound seems to have almost vanished. There are some good tracks in here, but as a follow-up to one of my favourite album's of 2018, heck maybe even my favourite album of 2018, it falls flat in nearly every way possible.
