U.S. Girls: In A Poem Unlimited [4AD]

Why you'll love it

This 4AD LP keeps the record's hidden trick, a locked groove at the end of side A on "Incidental Boogie," along with Remy's hand-coloured cover art. It was shortlisted for the 2018 Polaris Music Prize, nominated for a Juno and scored 87 on Metacritic.

This edition

• Locked groove at the end of side A
• Hand-coloured cover art by Meg Remy

About the album

Meg Remy moved to Toronto from the States and spent a decade making U.S. Girls records that grew bolder each time. In A Poem Unlimited is where the experiment turned irresistible, big and warm and groove-led with a sharp tongue, cut with the city's jazz-funk ensemble The Cosmic Range at Sonology, Palace Sound and a basement studio across 2016 and 2017.

"M.A.H." rides a 70s disco beat and wall-of-sound production, "Velvet 4 Sale" slinks in with psychedelic pop, "Pearly Gates" turns to funk, and "Rosebud" and "Poem" go synth-pop with Rich Morel. "Rage Of Plastics" covers Simone Schmidt's song, arranged with Schmidt herself, and Steve Chahley produced and mixed the lot.

Pitchfork made "Rosebud" a Best New Track, and Exclaim! named it the best pop or rock album of 2018. The liner notes say the collaborative process is impossible to credit accurately, which is the politest way we've seen of thanking half of Toronto.

Also at Kops: more U.S. Girls on vinyl · browse CDN Pop / Rock

Tracklist

Listen

On 4AD (cat# 4AD0046), the 2018 album.