U.S. Girls - Half Free LP

I half recall some pretty great pop songs coming from U.S. Girls way back when, a musician AKAing as Megham Remy, who can flip a coin between silliness and sincerity all the while keeping the music that upholsters it tonally consistent. On this record, her songs -- clumsily categorised “art-pop” -- twinkle, groove and emote quite righteously, sprinkled with more drama and darkness than usual. Pantomimic piano pop like “Window Shades” exists concurrently with fuzzy, unsettling samples like “Telephone Play No. 1”, proving that indie pop can still get weird at its most straightforward.Remy’s great juxtaposition of straightforward pop motif-making and hazy alternatives (the aesthetically vaporwave mid-tempo haze of “Navy & Cream”, for instance) sets her apart from other artists working within her general area, be they fallen heroes like Miracle Fortress or current synth-poppers like Mozart’s Sister. At times it’s hard to know if she’s making pop music that experiments or just goofs off, with the strangeness of this tune offset by ridiculous guitar solo rawk, and the ambient, clown-laughing intro of “New Age Thriller” eventually becoming as standardly catchy as an ominous ABBA single. As ever, Remy is as inventive with pop futurism as she is schooled in its oldest tricks.