U.S. Girls

Mad As Hell (aka MAH), Rosebud, Incidental Boogie are excellent. The other singles are pretty nifty too.

Mad As Hell is so great!

I'm loving the angry swirl of this record.

hell yeh this rules

I love "Half Free"'s A-side more than any other record ever, prob

Not meant to detract from either artist in saying this, but I've always been annoyed that the sound-world that Solex proposed wasn't further explored by other artists subsequently, and to my ears US Girls are exploring and expanding that world

Fgti, I mentioned solex earlier - great minds ;-)

She's hard to beat tho and underrated but US Girls are definitely carrying that torch

Nothing here quite as incredible as Woman's Work but then I think that was my #1 in the 2015 traxpoll

Incidental Boogie definitely from the same sound-world mind you

M.A.H. is awesome. I like the whole record, need to listen more. I sort of miss her scabrous noise days, but it's also cool that she's done a whole range of things since then.

Also 2nd/3rd the otms about Solex.

Might have heard part of the last album but this is the first new thing i’ve bought in forever without really knowing what it would sound like. Seems great so far.

(Just realized I have used the word scabrous twice in this thread, which is probably overselling her scabrousness. But she was pretty murky, kind of industrial. I love the new stuff too.)

The timbre of her voice on this record in particular reminds me a lot of mid-90s Kylie.

i've been thinking the exact same thing, Will!

Yeah, spot on. Put this on and after a few songs my girlfriend asked "uh...are you listening to a Kylie Minogue album?"

it hadn't occurred to me but she really does sound so much like Kylie

this album is excellent & so is her band. i was surprised to learn that Rage of Plastic and Time are both covers, they're so thoroughly transformed. Time is especially a highlight

here are the originals:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kH39LembpDQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1L-YQK756g

Kylie, yes, but Olivia Newton-John more.

alfred otm. also this record is glorious

I'm obsessed with Mad As Hell at the moment. It kind of reminds of Don't Talk To Me About Love by Altered Images which is one of my favourite songs ever. The rest of the album is slowly growing on me.

Loved the last album.
But this one?

The singles were coming out, and I wasn't completely convinced, but...
Hearing them, partnered with "Incidental Boogie", "L-Over", etc etc + the ultra-fantastic "Rage of Plastics"... makes this album feel like a goddamn subtle(ish) self-possessed wonder.

Playing it over and over again.

Yeah, I played the shit out of Half Free and was lukewarm on "Mad As Hell" at first, but LOVE this album and couldn't possibly overrate it

Same!

What I really want to do is play "Rage of Plastics" over and over again, but I always end up listening to the whole thing.
THAT's how I know this is super good.

mad as hell giving me heart vibes

Vocally I'm getting Ida No vibes more than anything else

Exactly ! I also hear Kylie now that she’s been mentioned but my first thought was Glass Candy.

Mad as Hell actually reminds me of Blondie of all artists.

Hope you had help it get to the top 77 2017 poll, we need to get at least one song represented in next year’s poll.

I still hear Gwen stefani in her timbre but also a deep reverence for doo wop (Glenda Collins maybe?). Still prefer half free tho

Rage of
Plastics sounds like black velvet to me

"Incidental Boogie," an excellent Eno-worthy title, is my ear worm.

"Incidental Boogie" is terrific.
Probably my #2 after "Rage...".

As for the singing... while she doesn't (I don't think) have the natural ability or range of Billy Mackenzie,
I def hear a touch of him in her more adventurous or dramatic note/performance choices.

Yeah I love this album. "Pearly Gates" is my current jam, but it's all good -- one of those records that ends too soon so I just put it on again.

pearly gates is great but we can all admit it rips "regulate" right?

I think you meant "and" not "but" -- part of what makes it great!

fair enough

"Time" reminds me of some of the extended grooves on Remain in Light.

I disliked it at first because it evoked a lot of white art funk that I find stale but the last two minutes are sultry!

White art funk for sure, but it's got verve. And it does turn into a proper live jam at the end.

I figured out what "Rage of Plastics" reminds me of, even sonically: a jam from Approximately Infinite Universe-era Yoko.

whoa this album is good, i'd never listened to U.S. Girls before

I had, but I didn't give this album a full play until a couple nights ago. As I mentioned to Soto on fb, there's nothing else that not only sounds like this right now, but there's nothing even coming from the same place and her brain is tapped into a wholly different timeline than everyone else. I LOVE THIS RECORD.

^ otm

It is quite good. Need to listen to the older stuff now.

great record, i'm too old to keep up with the buzzing stuff these days but this is really good

I mentioned this in my review but what it reminds me of more than anything is From the Choirgirl Hotle

s/Hotel

excellent review katherine. Re Tori aspects- I wish I could see the Tori similarity but I can't

it's partly musical -- "Velvet 4 Sale" really, really reminds me of "Liquid Diamonds" or "Cruel," or jumping ahead things like "Give" -- and partly the lyrics; "Pearly Gates" would fit right in with "Body and Soul," "God," etc. (less optimistic though)

i can see a similarity in the drum tempo to liquid diamonds for sure. definitely agree there's a thematic kinship as you pointed out in the review

it's an interesting one to consider, thanks

I like this record a lot but I'm not entirely convinced by the assertion that there's nothing much sounding like this now.

I haven't had a chance to give the new one a proper listen, but I did take my 15 year old daughter to see the show in DC and it was great. A really good live band, much better than I would expect. Afterwards Meg was working the merch stand and she chatted with the kid and it was really sweet. They've gotten to a point to where they are consistently good if unsurprising.

"Bless This Mess" made me get all misty during a hard time. The video is rather nice as well.

Meg was an amazing performer, barefoot in a cotton dress. In between songs she was warm and charming but when the music starts a switch is flipped and she gets this intense early David Byrne nervey thing going on. It's fascinating and hypnotic. Her movements were at different times sexual, maternal, and primal. There's a famous photo of Carolee Schneeman performing "Interior Scroll" and that is what kept flashing in my mind during the concert.