One might casually dismiss Lucy Dacus as “Queen of the Sad Girls,” especially since she shares 3 Grammys with Boygenius bandmates Phoebe Bridgers and Julien Baker. This is simply not true. She is about illustrating feelings (not an easy task) and she does it extremely well, although often sort of quietly.
“Forever Is a Feeling” marks her first release for a major label as a solo artist, but her sonic constructions still sound like a patented, Lucy Dacus thing. Her voice kind of hides behind the sound of her guitar, except when it doesn’t.
She’s been releasing fully-formed, unique recordings since 2016, although I must admit, the first one I heard and fell in love with immediately was “Historian,” in 2018. Her voice and guitar both have a certain eerie warmth.
Bartees Strange, who often shares similar territory in Vibeland, was the guest engineer on two of the record’s best songs – “Ankles” and “Best Guess.” Both of these have been carved out of the set as singles.
My guess is that the next single will be “Most Wanted Man,” because it’s the most traditionally alt-sounding song in the set, but this record has lots of high points, so who knows?
The title track, “Forever Is a Feeling,” features some incredible layered vocals, with help from her Boygenius bandmates.
On “Talk,” her guitar is sometimes made to sound fractured. But her voice remains steady, like heavy cream over a delicate dessert.
“Modigliani,” is an emotional travelogue of sorts. Lucy has a knack for pulling the right questions out of a situation, like, “Why does it feel significant?” and, “Why do I have to tell you about it?” This song also has my favorite lyric on the record: “You make me homesick for places I’ve never been before.”
Maybe it’s not heartbreak that fuels her songwriting fire, but more like relationships and the feelings they generate. In her world, they are well-observed and articulated. I feel like she’s never insisting that I listen to her, rather that something inside me is insisting that I listen to her.
-by Chris Diestler
Lucy Dacus is headlining Blossoms and Bones at Ghost Ranch in September. Register here to win a pair of tickets to the festivities on Friday, September 12th from Lensic360, and a slab of vinyl from Geffen Records and 98.1 Radio Free Santa Fe.
This article was posted by Rory
