U.S. Girls shares new song ‘Bless This Mess’
Meg Remy, better known under her experimental alt-pop stage name U.S. Girls, has returned with a brand new single, the hovering gospel-infused ballad ‘Bless This Mess’.
“Before camera phones, the family camcorder was often the mirror tool used to capture selfie-like performances of teenage daydreams and insecurities,” Remy explains about the song’s video. “Recently, I unearthed a VHS tape housing footage of my 1998 self singing on top of my favourite songs of the day, along with my 2000 self publicly performing music for the first time, plus various other blush-worthy self-portraits. I decided to air out this acutely personal footage. My meta music video vision: 1998 self singing a song that 2020 self wrote.”
It’s been two years since Remy dropped her wacky and wonderful seventh studio album Heavy Light. In contrast to some of the more out-there sounds that U.S. Girls typically pick up on, ‘Bless This Mess’ is a pretty straightforward and heart-rending ballad about “doing your best”. The accompanying video features real footage from Remy singing as a child.
“I buckled down and painstakingly dragged the eight-minute clip over each word of the song, forwards and then backwards, splitting off any partial or direct match,” director Evan Gordon explained. “Beyond my expectations, I was able to find multiple matches for each phrase. From here, I worked on stitching the clips together to make complete phrases, selecting from my list of matches much like making a comp of vocal takes.”
“This video is a realfake. It’s naturally authentic while being transparently fake,” Gordan adds. “Its intent is not to deceive or convince, but rather to induce reflection and remembrance.”
Check out the video for ‘Bless This Mess’ down below.
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