The pop soundscape is, regrettably, an echo chamber. Not as far as the exchange of ideas in the field is stunted (although it is), but more as far as the aesthetic freedom inside the genre of pop is constricted, by any rate. There are, of course, exceptions, Charli XCX being one notable pop contender.
U.S. Girls, Meghan Remy’s current project, is rapidly establishing itself as another exception. Her latest record sculpts together a collection of work that, while incorporating 1980s sheen and aesthetic references to ‘70s pop, emerges as a distinctly individual record. Anchored by the nostalgic “Mad As Hell” and “Rage of Plastics” as well as by the more upbeat “Time,” In a Poem Unlimited brings back an instrumental focus that has been largely absent from pop music for decades, and indulges in lyrical explorations into femininity and, of course, love. (We’re still in the realm of pop, after all.)
That said, the record’s instrumental presence dwarfs its lyrical content (which isn’t damning, simply a fact). For more proof of this, see the monumentally rad album closer, “Time.”
