Album Review: Scratch It by U.S. Girls

Call it dance floor liberation. That's the mantra U.S. Girls (aka Meg Remy) will immediately imprint on your brain, after wooing you to groove with lyrics like "This choreography is only for me" on "Like James Said." This retro sounding earwormy opening track on new LP Scratch It makes cutting a rug sound like a call to action not only because of Remy's lyrics, but also the vintage Memphis soul and sepia tinged rock tones of her crack backing band: guitarist Dillon Watson, keyboardists Jo Schornikow and Tina Norwood, drummer Domo Donoho, bassist Jack Lawrence, and harmonica player Charlie McCoy.

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Extolling the virtues of dancing alone on Like James Said, Meg Remy moves to her own tune on the follow-up to 2023's Bless This Mess. Recorded largely live in Nashville with a pro band (including Raconteur Jack Lawrence and harmonica vet Charlie McCoy) assembled for a show, Scratch It offers up warm, funky and soulful frameworks for Remy's slanted lyrics. Dear Patti juxtaposes parenting anxieties with reflections on gender-unbalanced festival line-ups; Pay Streak is a country-blues lament for the underpaid and overworked; and Emptying The Jimador recounts a perilous tequila experience.

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Listen to any of Meg Remy's U.S. Girls records from the past decade and you'll discover a mind bursting - overflowing, almost - with ideas and genre-bending visions. Whether it's clattering industrial psych-rock ('Half Free'), politically charged and feral funk jams ('In A Poem Unlimited'), existential avant-pop ('Heavy Light') or Parisian disco and slick '80s electro flourishes ('Bless This Mess'), Remy's work defies traditional categorisation.

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