Lucy Dacus

• Home Video [Matador, 2021] A−
• Forever Is a Feeling [Geffen, 2025] A−

Consumer Guide Reviews:

Home Video [Matador, 2021]
Having slotted Dacus as a don't-get-her rather than can't-stand-her, I liked this one so much I checked back to No Burden and Historian, both of which I'd found too static, and decided there'd been more there than I'd thought, although Historian opener "Night Shift," for instance, is a great song only if ones that don't move much count. Without once rocking out, album three definitely moves. From "Hot and Heavy"'s basement dalliance with a gem who only got brighter to "Please Stay"'s "Quit your job, cut your hair, get a dog" suicide watch, these verbally and musically detailed reminiscences of an alienated ex-Christian get me going. As a committed backslider who knows "VBS" stands for Vacation Bible School, I find her religious apostasy especially useful and poignant. But "Thumbs," in which she clutches the hand of the friend/lover who's face-to-face with her dad for the first time since fifth grade, is also pretty intense. And there's more. A−

Forever Is a Feeling [Geffen, 2025]
Come on—for Dacus, forever isn't just a feeling but a goal. Song after unfashionably sweet, unfailingly melodic, undeniably sincere song, she falls in something like love with partners and/or objects of desire who if they aren't all different people (and it's conceivable they're all just one) inspire different apercus and/or call up different memories. "You are doing the Lord's work every time you smile at me." "Clasping your necklace, zipping your dress/Hands on your waist, kissing your neck." "You may not be an angel, but you are my girl/You are my pack a day/You are my favorite place/You were my best friend before you were my . . . " "I'm thinking about breaking your heart and if I do I'll break mine too." "Now I'm knocking down your door 'cause I'm trying to make up for lost time." "This is bliss/This is hell." A−