After touring as part of the indie-rock band boygenius with fellow members Phoebe Bridgers and Julien Baker in 2023, Lucy Dacus made a long-awaited return to her solo career with her fourth studio album “Forever is a Feeling” this spring.
Her recent deluxe album, “Forever Is A Feeling: The Archives,” uses vivid lyrics to capture the raw emotions that hooked fans in the first place.
The deluxe album, released Oct. 10, features a variety of demos, live adaptations, covers and extended versions of the original releases. Dacus also added her most recent singles “Bus Back To Richmond” and “More Than Friends” to the tracklist.
The album begins with a short instrumental track titled “Calliope Prelude,” an introduction featuring ambient violins that ultimately blends into “Big Deal,” the album’s second song. From the very first note of her vocals, Dacus immediately reminds listeners of the skilled songwriting that originally propelled her into fame. As always, no one writes yearning like Lucy Dacus.
For example, on “Big Deal,” Dacus sings, “You’ve got your girl, you’re gonna marry her / And I’ll be watching in a pinstriped suit / Sincerely happy for the both of you.”
In “Ankles” and “Limerence” — which served as the record’s lead singles — Dacus’s ability to craft nostalgia through unique, poetic observations of everyday occurrences is on full display.
In “Ankles,” she romanticizes the small things, dreaming of her partner helping “with the crossword in the mornings” and asking her how she slept. The demo version of the song — a new addition on the deluxe album — is composed solely of Dacus’s soft vocals and an acoustic guitar, truly highlighting the tenderness of the song’s lyrics.
Dacus’s lush imagery is also evident on the record’s title track, which features vivid lyrics like “We were cherry red in your forest green / 1993 Grand Cherokee.”
On “Limerence,” she demonstrates an intense self-awareness that offers a refreshingly honest perspective. Dacus writes, “If I stay busy, maybe I’ll forget how I feel and go on living life as I planned it,” adding, “Why do I feel alive when I’m behaving my worst?”
In “Modigliani,” boygenius fans will be pleasantly surprised by a guest appearance from Bridgers. The song describes getting to know a friend more deeply, and the witty, lovesick lyrics contrasting the more upbeat backing track are reminiscent of Dacus’s prior work.
“You make me homesick for places I’ve never been before,” Dacus sings on the track.
The album’s love songs are truly one of a kind. Poetically commenting on the broader complexity of modern-day relationships as well as the intensely specific — yet somehow, still relatable — aspects of her own, Dacus solidifies herself as one of the most talented songwriters of this era.
Despite only being about two minutes long, “For Keeps” is one of the most beautiful, complex love songs of the year. With only an acoustic guitar and her dreamy vocals, Dacus sings, “If the devil’s in the details / Then God is in the gap in your teeth / You are doing the Lord’s word / Every time you smile at me.”
Dacus’s intensely unique writing style and gutwrenching lines continue throughout her commentary on the transience of both relationships and life itself. The concept ultimately inspires the notion of “Forever is a Feeling,” with Dacus adding in the title track, “Isn’t that what love’s about? / Doing whatever to draw it out?”
In “Lost Time,” she again notes the impermanence and beauty of love, adding that “Nothing lasts forever, but let’s see how far we get / So when it comes my time to lose you / I’ll have made the most of it.”
The deluxe tracks continue to pull on heartstrings just as the original works did.
One notable release is “Best Guess (wedding version),” which Dacus played while officiating multiple marriages during her recent tour. She originally advertised the idea on Instagram in response to recent legal threats to same-sex marriage. During her performance at the All Things Go festival in Maryland, the singer officiated the weddings of nine separate couples.
The extended album also features a cover of Jim Croce’s “Time in A Bottle,” with Dacus’s vocals offering a haunting rendition of the 1972 single. The song’s lyrics perfectly tie back into Dacus’s own themes of time and its impermanence: In the chorus, she claims, “If I could make days last forever / If words could make wishes come true / I’d save every day like a treasure and then / Again, I would spend them with you.”
In “Losing,” a new track off the deluxe record, Dacus offers fans another quick yet impressively poignant moment of self-reflection, singing, “The worst thing about / Losing your spark / Is not having the drive / To get it back.”
“Forever Is A Feeling: The Archives” offers listeners all the same magic as the original record, as well as the opportunity for a deeper appreciation of Dacus’s lyrics through the more stripped-down, acoustic tracks. Dacus’s ability to masterfully capture specific emotions and convey life’s complexities makes her one of the standout artists of her generation. “Forever Is A Feeling: The Archives” serves as a true testament to her artistry.
