Strange things run through my head when I listen to an album. Not all the time – thank God – but some of the time. Things like would you actually want to meet this musician? Does this musician burn with the same intensity in person as they do when in song? In the case of Meg Myers, if she writes from experience, she is not, given the evidence in her new album “Take Me To the Disco”, found lacking in either honesty or emotional catharsis.
This could, of course, just be theatre but it is also a fact that this entire album comes across as an emotional wrecking ball aimed at more than just reality. There is much intensity here with song after song spiralling over a spiritual abyss that threatens to take the listeners in with her. You might be thinking that this is some sort of bad thing, yet it isn’t for computers can never do anything like this and only the human spirit will ever be strong enough to translate such emotions into music.
Some will undoubtedly find this album oppressive and hard to take in anything other than small doses. Some will no do doubt cry out for happy songs sponsored by a beneficent multinational corporation as things always go better with fizzy drinks but many will nonetheless appreciate the soul on fire directness that drives “Tear Me To Pieces” or “The Death of Me” like a stake through the heart.
I get paid by the word so I am prone to ramble but, if I had to describe “Take Me To The Disco” in one word then that word would be “real”. One day someone will write a gospel for the 21st century and I would not be surprised if they were to use this album as a reference. Maybe Meg Myers will be too much for most people but, then again so is reality.