Lucy Dacus Makes Us Swoon, Laugh, And Weep Over ‘Forever Is a Feeling’

Lucy Dacus is a poet. There, I said it. Over the past decade of making music, Dacus has repeatedly shown that beyond her timeless vocals and indie rock sound, her writing is what she will be remembered for. Her latest record, Forever is a Feeling, is seeped in poetry, from its painted cover to violin and harp arrangements reminiscent of an ancient era. You will find yourself yearning to twirl in a Victorian gown while reciting gay Emily Dickinson poems with this record blasting in the background. 

Calliope Prelude 

The record opens wordlessly with this sparse violin track. As a whining violin grows into a discordant symphony of strings, the track brims with the palpable antique tension of “A Portrait of a Lady on Fire.” This track, while somewhat melancholic, also holds moments of longing and hope alongside an undercurrent of despair. By the end, this track manages to capture the cinematic mix of emotions about to greet listeners throughout the rest of the record. 

Big Deal

Flowing directly from the prelude, a light, airy, even Kacey Musgraves Golden Hour era-esque acoustic guitar disrupts the violin angst and drops us into a tale of newly confessed feelings. “You didn’t plan to tell me how you feel / You laugh about it like it’s no big deal,” Dacus recounts. Despite the mutual desires of Dacus and this person, there is a shared understanding that nothing can happen, “You’ve got your girl, you’re gonna marry her,” Dacus explains. 

But despite the roadblock between Dacus and this person, she remains eager to share, “If we never talk about it again / There’s something I want you to understand / You’re a big deal.” The last line repeated throughout the ending of the song, Dacus emphasizes that love, even if never fully realized, still meant everything for a moment as fleeting and sweet as the distant muffled strings that trace her gentle voice. One thing Lucy Dacus will never do is write about love in an unnuanced manner, and thank god for that. 

Ankles

The record’s single seems to follow the last in chronological order as it depicts the actualization of a previously unimaginable desire. Led by a pulsing cello, this sonically bright song feels like the very first rays of sun in early spring and is just dirty enough to make us blush. You can read our piece about this track here. 

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Limerence 

If the last track was spring, this track is a cold, uncomfortable winter. Tensely led by piano and shivering strings, this becomes an almost eerie listening experience. The dissonance perfectly captures the brewing discontent that Dacus describes about the task set before her—“I’m thinking about breaking your heart someday soon … Is there a difference between lying to you / If it feels just as bad as telling the truth?”

The tension grows as Dacus describes trying to find a way to put off the impending conversation, but the piano quickly descends as Dacus comes face-to-face with the painful truth—“I want what we have / A beautiful life / But the stillness, the stillness might eat me alive.” For those of you going through or nearing a breakup, you might want to sit this one out for a little while.

Modigliani 

Here we get the return of the classic muted indie rock guitar mixed with strings and harp that have followed us throughout the record. An ode to the friendship and deep love she has for fellow artist Phoebe Bridgers, Dacus describes the heartache of being far from someone you love, writing, “You make me feel homesick for places I’ve never been before.” All the Lucy and boygenius fans out there will be unsurprised by how touching Dacus’ odes to friendship are, as the intimacy, understanding, and beauty of friendship have become themes throughout her work. 

Dacus describes the subtle actions that allowed her to spot Bridgers’ feelings for a new guy and the anecdotes she has memorised from Bridgers’ retelling. What a pleasure it is to be known by someone; may we all be so lucky. “I like watching you win over a new crowd / You can make ‘em go wild you can leave ‘em spellbound / But you will never be famous to me,” Dacus sings in what is surely reassuring in the industry they reside in. All you parasocial girls out there, this song is simply not for you. 

Talk 

If you are craving the sound of an early Dacus song, this is the closest you’ll get on this new record. Her breathy, soft, low voice sits over a dark atmosphere of heavy drums, and the on and off appearance of a distorted, crunchy guitar. As Dacus sings the hook, “Why can’t we talk anymore,” she places a heavy pause before the titular word. In that pause she places us listeners in the uncomfortable moment of being with someone you have run out of things to say to. The growing dark sonics only echo the sick feeling when you realize, if you can’t even talk anymore, what’s left anyway? 

For Keeps 

The one and only Lucy Dacus picked up her pen and wrote this track. From top to bottom, the poetry of this song is breathtaking. Over a folky guitar, Dacus’ heartbreaking voice is allowed to shine. “If the Devil’s in the details / Then God is in the gap in your teeth / You are doing the Lord’s work every time you smile at me,” she softly sings in this bittersweet lullaby about a love that cannot last.

A pessimist’s love song, it follows Dacus as she explains, “I don’t believe in anything anymore / Except you and me, supremacy” only to follow it with “But I still miss you / When I’m with you / Cause I know we’re not playing for keeps.” This track captures the beauty and pain of a well-written song. 

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Forever is a Feeling

Drop everything and get in the car, we’re driving criminally fast down the street listening to this track. Greeted by a piano arpeggio ala LCD Soundsystem, electronic beeps, big heavy drums, strobing strings, and a driving bass, this track might just be Dacus’ most sonically exciting piece to date. Everything falls away in the chorus as a bright guitar and harp appear to lift us toward the sky as Dacus sings about the “bliss” and “hell” of the feeling of forever. 

Dacus gets freaky with it in the second verse, changing the beat, throwing in some wild bass parts and heavenly harmonies, this track really does mimic the floaty feeling you get when you place your heart in someone else’s hands. As Julien Baker and Phoebe Bridgers join to repeat “forever is a feeling,” the song really does begin to beg to be played too loud in a car with every window down. 

Come Out 

Not a story of coming out of the closet, this love song captures the dreaminess of falling with a heavily featured harp, a whimsical guitar, and an almost wind-chime sounding celeste. “Come out, come out, wherever you are / I miss you, I miss you, I miss you in my arms,” Dacus sweetly coos, playing with childhood whimsy. Similar to “Kiss Me” by Sixpence None the Richer, this song makes you want to twirl in a field of flowers or waltz with your love under a star-lit sky. 

Best Guess 

Another single from the record, this swoon-worthy track features guitars and the return of the celeste to create a summer-time sound. In the second verse when Dacus sings “I want you, you, you” and the music follows her, it mimics the gentleness of a classic Carpenters love tune. While the sentiment “You are my best guess at the future” is as sweet as it gets, the song pales when placed alongside the record’s other strong tracks. 

Bullseye ft. Hozier

Spiritually, aesthetically, and sonically, both Dacus and Hozier feel like time travelers from a distant past or unknown future. On this track, their voices sound truly timeless. The indie folk track details the bittersweet experience of letting go of someone you never stopped loving. “But I meant every word I said when I said it / The world we built meant the world to me / When one world ends / The other worlds keep spinning,” Dacus sings. 

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The guitars capture a warmth often heard in a classic country song, while the writing absolutely stuns. “I’ll miss borrowing your books to read your notes in the margins / The closest I came to reading your mind,” she writes. Lucy, put the pen down (don’t), we can’t take it anymore (yes we can)! 

Most Wanted Man

Yeehaw! Get back in y’all, we’re going to Tennessee. This track is packed to the brim with Memphis flair and early ’90s country guitars. A cheeky love song dedicated to the Memphis native and now confirmed partner of Dacus, Julien Baker, this song plays with the probably true idea that Baker is the most wanted man in West Tennessee. Throughout every Dacus record, we get glimpses of her cracking wit and this song is no exception as she writes of their stay at the Ritz, “700-dollar room, still drinking coffee from a Keurig.” 

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Undeniably sweet, this song really does bring a smile to any romance fan out there. “Watermelon dripping down your chin, laughing till you cry / Sweetest tears I ever tasted, kissing salt out of your eyes,” Dacus sings. “I just wanna make you happy / Will you let me spend a lifetime trying?” You just can’t help but be happy for a love like that. 

Lost Time

This album is really the first time we have gotten to hear Dacus write about romantic love, and of course, it is breathtaking but this track is unreal. With a shy guitar and gentle bird sounds, Dacus uses this song to lament the wasted time before confessing her love. “I love you and every day I knew and didn’t say is lost time,” she sings with a tangible regret in her vocals. While sincere enough to be a first dance song, the melancholy undercurrent of having wasted time makes this concurrently weepable. 

As discordant violins appear, bringing us back to the first track, a heavy guitar crashes in and disrupts the gentleness with an intense, all-consuming fervor. Dacus details the intimacy of her knowledge of this person in vivid detail—a broken gold chain, a 60-day chip, an unpaid parking ticket. “I notice everything about you, I can’t help it / It’s not a choice, it’s been this way since we met,” Dacus confides. For Dacus, it has become clear that loving is knowing, and the beauty of her specific writing is finding a way to translate that intense intimacy to listeners through hyper-specific detail, poetic imagery, and the emotional tremble of her voice.