She’s Kinda Neat

Miss World “I Found A Girl”

As Miss World creates more music and videos, it’s clear to me that she’s a true auteur who is gradually creating her own distinctive aesthetic and iconography out of kitschy elements of the past and present. She’s kinda like the Anna Biller of indie rock, building fun but cleverly pointed art that on the surface comes off as frivolous because she’s mostly making references to junk culture made for women and the less glamorous elements of the internet.

“I Found A Girl” is Miss World in curatorial mode. The song was originally performed by an amateur singer called Roye’l on a public access show and spread as a minor video meme back in the early days of YouTube. Miss World’s cover of the song is not devoid of irony – she layers images of herself over the original footage in the video – but it’s very clear that her love for this song is entirely earnest. This is her best vocal performance to date – her timbre is uncannily similar to that of a young Madonna, and that along with the particular tone of the synths makes it sound like it could be a great lost mid-80s Madonna ballad.

The real joy of this recording is in how much she embraces the purity of Roye’l’s song, and sings it like the hit it ought to be. The hook is truly gorgeous, and I feel like my heart is glowing every time I hear her sing the phrase “I found her a girl, her name is Jikokoa!” The subtle tension in her version comes down to a bitter knowledge of how the world can be, and how first loves can go, but singing it all like she’s just trying to will more purity and kind-hearted joy into the world.

Buy it from Bandcamp.