How do you want me? Asks the brooding singer-song writer siren, Meg Myers, in her 2015 tune “Desire” from her album Sorry. Myers first came onto the scene in 2012 with her debut Daughter in the Choir EP, when she signed with Doctor Rosen Rosen’s production company. A Nashville native with a conservative upbringing, Myers considers her music an expression of the loss of innocence. And one can’t help but agree.
Her music video for “Desire” experiments with a coy sexuality that Myers evokes effortlessly. Reminiscent of Fiona Apple’s “Criminal”, “Desire” has a raunchy stripped down aesthetic packed with brutal honesty. “Baby, I wanna fuck you, I wanna feel you in my bones, boy I’m gonna love you, I’m gonna tear into your soul”. Myers’ writing makes no apology. It tells the listening world the story of a young woman transitioning into the mischievous realm of youthful sexuality. Scantly clad in only a tank top and toddler briefs, Myers levitates on a bed as if to suggest the sensual ecstasy inherent in one’s carnal curiosities.
In “Motel”, she writes, “I wanna love, wanna live, wanna breathe, wanna give, but its hard and it’s dark and we’re doomed from the start”. Myers brings these words to life during her live performances and studio sessions. Again in, “I Really Want You”, Myers makes it a point to shatter gender norms with her vitriolic verse: “I really want you to hate me, I really want you to find, that I am far from a lady, that I’m an animal inside”.
The common thread uniting Myer’s music is her masterful synthesis of intense lyrical meaning, raw vocals, and heavy instrumentation. Her genre, while uniquely alternative, echoes the musical styling of female songstresses like Fiona Apple, PJ Harvey, Alanis Morissette, and Tori Amos. She belts her songs with the same talent and emotional power of her 90’s predecessors. Similarly, she projects the self-loathing and angst felt by the average 21st century woman desperately seeking an outlet.
Whether you’re a 21st century woman or otherwise, Meg Myers’ music tells a truth we can all relate to. And that’s one of emotional nudity confronted with a world of illusive layers. Her music is a refreshing departure from the cynical sexuality of popular female icons. And more significantly, her writing offers the message that it’s wildly sexy to be vulnerable.