There are so many rhythms, references and emotional narratives happening on Toronto-based American musician Meg Remy’s debut for 4AD, it’s hard to know where to begin. So how about its catchiest pop tune? The beautiful Window Shades reflects on the end of a relationship and asks “What if?” Using an elegant 70s disco-soul sample, she elevates a mundane moment of self-searching into grand theatrical drama.
Half Free centres on the lives of women and what it means to be a woman. Damn That Valley imagines the inner life of a war widow, while Sororal Feelings is based on a character from Michael Ondaatje’s Coming Through Slaughter. The songs vary in style – disco, reggae, glam rock, Eno – but are connected by Remy’s assured singing and vintage atmospherics that suggest her larger thematic concerns exist outside of time.
Occasionally Half Free can sound dense to the point of being vexing, but its vivid imagery and striking melodies keep Remy’s more self-indulgent tendencies grounded in a classic pop sensibility.
Top track: Window Shades
Meg Remy plays the 805 Studio on Thursday (September 24).
