U.S. Girls
Overtime
4AD
After 2018’s acclaimed In a Poem Unlimited, U.S. Girls has cemented creative force Meghan Remy as must-hear entertainment. Starting as an experiment in loop-heavy pop, she has since expanded to incorporate elements of art rock, soul, funk, electronica, and all points in between.
Overtime, the first single lifted from upcoming LP Heavy Light (out March 6), is U.S. Girls concentrate. It’s a reworking of an old track from 2013, a slow and woozy number that is given an adrenaline shot of an update. It’s not as kaleidoscopic as the pieces on Poem, which used all manner of sampled live instrumentation. Here, everything is stripped back except a frantic tambourine beat and skittering funk guitar riff. After a brief vocal-only intro, the groove kicks in with an urgency that feels almost too fast, the piece feeling like it’ll trip over itself.
Of course it never does, its pace instead creating a restless tension as Remy’s vocal takes centre stage. That voice is unfairly versatile but it’s foremost inspired by 60s girl groups like The Ronettes, and this number brings out the soul connection more than anything on the previous LP.
The song’s subject matter is brutal, regarding a partner whose time spent working ‘overtime’ was actually spent drinking himself into an early grave. It’s one of several Remy narratives about fragmented relationships that have come apart behind closed doors, but the speed and energy of this number points to anger atop the grief. If this single is anything to go by, the upcoming LP will be her best yet.
MATIJA ZIVKOVIC
