Long Beard’s wonderful debut, Sleepwalker, was an album for late-night wanderings, surrounded by the drone of bugs and the vastness of your own mind. It felt painfully present. Her sophomore album, Means To Me, is a little different: It operates at a distance, reflecting feelings with a remove. There’s an emotional distance that Leslie Bear is trying to bridge, a collection of moments and searing memories that are supposed to add up to something but Bear is having a hard time figuring out what.

The album was written about Bear moved back to her hometown in New Jersey after most of her friends had left. “Means To Me” — its title track and second single following “Sweetheart — is about that loneliness: “Hey, guess I should have known I’d end up alone/ And in time, all of this will fade,” she sings on its opening lines. It’s a search for stability, weightless and looking for ground.

Listen to it below.

TOUR DATES:
9/17 Washington, DC @ Comet Ping Pong ^
9/18 Philadelphia, PA @ Boot & Saddle ^
9/20 Portsmouth, NH @ 3S Arts ^
9/21 Boston, MA @ The Great Scott ^
9/26 Brooklyn, NY @ Baby’s All Right *
^ w/ Saintseneca
* Means To Me album release show

Means To Me is out 9/13 via Double Double Whammy. Pre-order it here.