lucy dacus

new lucy dacus thread made in anticipation of her third album the first song from which was released today

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S19BYUvnKjk

can't think of a lyricist on her level atm in indie rock

LOVE her, the best songwriter of the boygenius crew imo

“Night shift” is completely devastating

Love the covers EP she put out a couple years ago.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGaVVOyiVag

new album in june

both new songs excellent

Yeah these are both good. Love her voice, it's one of those that kind of rides across the surface but has implied depths. She has a really rich tone.

I think dacus is the person in that general boygenius orbit who best combines performance, lyric and production in service of the songs. she has a really good ear.

Got tickets to see her, hope willing, in September, with Bachelor (Palehound/Jay Som) opening. Should be a good night.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8JqjG8A90g

continues to establish herself as the real deal

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qmaB3qwPAs

You called me cerebral
I didn't know what you meant
But now I do
Would it have killed you to call me pretty instead?

What a great song (as usual).

all these songs have been really nice

this album is really good

guess i should give her previous stuff another try

finally got around to this and..."thumbs"...sheeeesh

In five years I hope the songs feel like covers...

Great new video for "Night Shift," directed by Jane Schoenbrun

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7gEgIEUj3A

war criminal :( https://t.co/ikW3tMevxe

— Lucy Dacus (@lucydacus) July 20, 2023

very rude, she could lean a thing or two from Susanna Hoffs

From you Mr. President, means the world! https://t.co/6zDrBdQOrW

— Susanna Hoffs (@SusannaHoffs) July 21, 2023

lol

appreciate the frownyface emoji, which confirms to me that his war crimes make her sad :(

One of the most internationally famous and popular public figures of the last century promoted my song on the same list as Stevie Wonder, Ella Fitzgerald, and John Coltrane :(

I've heard his fame and popularity were a great source of comfort to the families of people he drone bombed :)

unironically i wish more ppl expressed indifference or worse at being on his vaunted lists

I'm just wondering how long he plans to keep it up for. It's kind of funny that it's still a thing six years after he left the White House.

we should make it rule that you can only post lists of songs to ilm if you've been potus at some point in the last five years

this song exploder episode was my introduction to lucy dacus -- i shared it with a friend and we bonded INTENSELY after listening to the episode and the song. i was the friend (the lucy character) who desperately wanted to protect her friend from a hurtful parent. so specific and accurate and real -- also, just as anecdata, my boygenius friends at work all say Lucy is their fave <3

https://songexploder.net/lucy-dacus

New album sounds wonderful, still digging into the lyrics (which drew me into the last LP).

I haven't had a chance to spin it yet, but surprised how rough many of the reviews have been to Dacus.

I like the album and have enjoyed her work but boygenius coaxed something out of her -- out of all of them -- that I expected to hear and didn't.

Seeing some discussion on the Pitchfork thread. Much of the music is very easy listening folky stuff . It’s a little too backgroundy for me , but my wife likes it and a fair amount of ilxors and others do too. NPR has several articles on it ( of course) and Ann Powers positive review is largely all about the lyrics and love .

I like this on the Pitchfork thread

but if you were looking for lucy dacus to start screaming about her feelings.,…. wrong artist

― ivy., Monday, March 31, 2025 9:46 AM (eleven minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

There is usually one or two songs on every LD album (or singles) that I never tire of, just fantastic songs. And the rest is usually a pleasant mush. This new album, after two or three listens, is all pleasant mush.

it's very nice sounding but yes, it's extremely forgettable

It is mush but it's really sweet mush. And I don't know if it matters how you approach love songs, but at this late date it makes me think of them not in my own context but how my sons are feeling with their own relationships, and that adds to the experience for me.

I came to this expecting to be underwhelmed given the general reaction and also because ("True Blue" aside) the Dacus songs on the Boygenius album were the weakest for me (though her contributions to "Cool About It" and "Satanist" were great).

But on first listen I'm... at least sufficiently whelmed, even if I don't expect to ultimately love this as much as Home Video, which was a huge album for me.

I suppose the suggestion that is pleasant mush is correct, but I've always felt that the entire appeal of Dacus is the way that she sits with and stares at an idea or emotion or reaction or strongly long enough for all the excessively sharpened surfaces (sharpened by defensiveness, or grief or anger or self-deception) to be sanded away until you're left with this incredibly limpid reflection of the situation in question (this is not some handwavey excuse of boring or polite music in general - I'm not sure I'd describe any other artist in these terms).

In retrospect, maybe what let her contributions down on the Boygenius album is that she didn't allow herself to do that - her songs sounded tossed off and spontaneous in a way that might sometimes work for Baker (the id to Bridgers' ego to Dacus' superego) but doesn't work for the other two, Dacus least of all. Maybe she wasn't sure how to approach writing songs from a place of relative contentment, whereas she sounds like she's settled into that now. If my suspicion is that she will struggle to ever top Home Video, that might be because those songs felt like the songs (or the songs the ideas for which) that she had been sitting with and staring at all her life.

But still, a song like "Modigliani" (which I assume is about Bridgers) just feels so wise and knowing and clear-eyed about the song's subject matter:

"When you told me about your new man it wasn't news
'Cause you've got all these mannerisms that you never do
Like rolling your eyes and laughing real dry
Like you were trying him on for size"

On "True Blue" she sang "it feels good to be known so well / I can't hide from you like I hide from myself" - but I've always imagined that rather it's the other way around.

Okay, having given this a full, proper listen. I like it a lot! It won't top Home Video, but that would be asking a lot of any follow-up tbh. "Pleasant" is accurate, but I don't hear "mush" at all. It's definitely all of a similar vibe, to be sure, but I find her songwriting to be as strong as ever.

her March 14 show in Berlin: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TW_omj9wTaM

Just finally getting around to No Burden and it's really good! She really came out of the gate pretty fully formed.

Big Deal is the best song i've heard this year.

I like this album a lot. It’s very soothing