Well, look at that. The world is ending. Suddenly we’re all cooped up, we can’t see friends or loved ones, we can’t go out for pizza, and we can’t grab a beer at the bar. I don’t know about you, but even if people weren’t suffering and dying from coronavirus, I’d be starting to feel really down. I’m frustrated and anxious, I’m stir-crazy, and I’m sleeping terribly. Everything is canceled–tours included–but at least there are still new records coming out. I’m finding the new U.S. Girls album, Heavy Light, to be a little ray of sunshine. U.S. Girls is the project of Toronto-via-Chicago musician Meghan Remy, who has been releasing various strains of experimental pop music under that name since 2007. Her first records skewed toward dark, fuzzy bedroom-recorded starkness, with lo-fi production and drum-machine backing. But she’s since developed her sound and shifted to the brighter side of the street, and Heavy Light is her biggest, cheeriest release yet. This time around Remy plays with lush AM Gold disco feels, foregrounding upbeat funky fun; it certainly wasn’t what I expected, but in these dark times, it was more than welcome. v