Stream: Meg Myers, ‘Numb’

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Meg Myers (Photo by Brantley Gutierrez)
Meg Myers (Photo by Brantley Gutierrez)

Whether in a whisper or a scream, Meg Myers proved a most electric confessionalist on her 2015 debut album “Sorry,” a record that capped her three-plus-year climb from Echo Park waitress to major-label songstress. It reflected her conservative upbringing in the Mid-South, her journey to L.A. at age 19 and a lot of the emotional negotiations inherent in growing, and growing up.

Now Myers, calloused from her experience on a major record label and, ostensibly, older and wiser, returns July 22 with her sophomore album, “Take Me to the Disco,” via independent label 300 Entertainment. The first single is “Numb,” a taut alt-rock ripper about being cornered by everybody else’s expectations — and succumbing to the mere feeling of helplessness. “I hate the feeling of this world upon my shoulders / pushing the pressure down on me,” Myers declares in the big chorus. As outlets for frustrations go, “Numb” could be a punching bag.

“When I first wrote ‘Numb,'” Myers says, “it was about my experience with a major record label. But as I dug deeper, I found that it goes back to some early childhood stuff and how shutting down, or escaping, felt like the safer thing to do.”

Myers’ new album was co-written with producer Christian “Leggy” Langdon and features Victor Indrizzo on drums and the Section Quartet on six songs.

Adds Myers: “Listening back to some of these songs made me realize what I was really writing about … what was underneath it all. On the surface, I thought I was writing about love loss but I’ve learned it goes much deeper than that. It’s going back to the child in me that needed to be healed. I’ve always written from a true place, but in getting to know myself better, I’m now writing from an even deeper level of honesty.”

||| Stream: “Numb”

||| Live: Meg Myers performs June 25 at the Echo.

||| Previously: Live at the El Rey, “Sorry,” “Go”