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It’s not often that one stumbles across an album as masterfully crafted and intelligent as Half Free, the 4AD debut of U.S. Girls. While the record is almost disorientatingly kaleidoscopic in the breadth of genres it covers, it is firmly a ‘pop’ album. However, it’s as if the artist (real name Meg Remy) tries the most convoluted route possible to arrive at such a description. Damn That Valley, the album’s standout track, is a case in point: it’s an explicitly political song laid over a dubbed-out beat, and is strongly reminiscent of the reggae inflected agit-funk of seminal post-punk act The Slits. The lyrics offer a damning judgement of U.S. military activities in the Middle East, and as Remy assumes the persona of a war widow the song feels intensely intimate. With the above considered one would imagine the track as perhaps feeling overwrought – this isn’t the case, and even if one were to take it in its simplest terms it’s a brilliantly catchy song with a refrain that you will find worming its way into your head.

The rather Springsteenian use of personal narratives to explore broader themes is something that Remy uses to great effect throughout the album. While the pop-styles explored by the artist are disparate (Windows Shades is a woozy, piano-lead piece of dreamy disco, Sed Knife is a proper rock stomper), when one focuses on the lyrics aside from the music, a singularly feminist theme emerges. Woman’s Work, the album closer, is exemplary of this. The title of the track seemingly alludes to Kate Bush’s 1989 single This Woman’s Work, a song that celebrated women. Remy expands upon this by lashing out at constraints placed upon women, not least by the ‘religion of beauty’ that our society adheres to. Carried along by a sweeping arpeggio synth, the seven minute long song is a suitably dramatic ending to what is certainly one of the best albums to be released this year.

Half Free is out now. U.S. Girls plays Whelan’s on the 25th of October, tickets are €13.