Atwood Journal’s writers talk about Lucy Dacus’ stunningly intimate, superbly radiant, and lyrically wealthy fourth album ‘Endlessly Is a Feeling,’ unpacking its nuanced meditations on love, time, vulnerability, and what it means to really “take advantage of it.”
Featured listed below are Atwood writers Bárbara Martínez Campuzano, Christine Buckley, Josh Weiner, and Mitch Mosk!
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To begin, what’s your relationship with Lucy Dacus’ music?
Josh Weiner: I like her as a lot as the subsequent man. I haven’t made it by her full catalogue, however I listened to a few of her most up-to-date information in addition to her work with boygenius, so I can verify that she is a proficient musician and powerful vocalist.
Bárbara Martínez Campuzano: I’ve listened to Lucy Dacus for fairly some time now. Albums like Residence Video or Historian include songs that I take heed to each day, and I particularly like boygenius and the best way the three artists (Phoebe, Lucy, and Julien) work collectively. Their album the report was certainly one of my favorites of 2023.
Christine Buckley: I’d recognized of Lucy for awhile however didn’t actually get into her and her music till I received into boygenius. She is such an unimaginable poet – she’s even mentioned issues about how she solely actually writes music to get her lyrics on the market, not the opposite method round. I like how lyrically dense her songs are usually, and the way actually uncooked they’re. Her music “Afraid of Heights” from the boygenius EP “the remaining” is certainly one of my favourite songs of 2024.
Mitch Mosk: Whereas I undoubtedly knew about Lucy Dacus previous to boygenius, it was the discharge of that first boygenius EP in 2018 that put her squarely on my radar for good – after which Residence Video was the primary album of hers that I consciously and actively listened to in full. I suppose you possibly can name me a passive fan, in that I don’t at all times deliberately search her out, however I by no means pause a Lucy Dacus music as soon as it’s on – that monitor’s getting performed during.
What are your preliminary impressions and reactions to Endlessly Is a Feeling?
Bárbara: It’s a good album with good manufacturing, though I believe I received so used to guitars from tracks of boygenius that I barely missed that little bit of rock on this new album. I used to be shocked that this album is sweeter, extra romantic; I really feel the identical Lucy Dacus we’ve recognized from her previous three albums remains to be there, however the themes have reworked.
Christine: Lucy has at all times been a grasp of a sluggish construct, and she or he’s completed it once more on Endlessly is a Feeling – the album itself and plenty of of its songs, particularly the nearer “Misplaced Time.” As with all her albums although I’ve needed to give it a number of listens to know extra of the references and metaphors, and I’m unsure I’ll ever really perceive all of them. However that’s the mark of a great album – when you’ll be able to hear one thing new every time, like a present that retains on giving.
Mitch: I’m not going to mince phrases right here: I believe it’s a masterpiece, a triumph, and an entire world unto itself. Not solely has Dacus created a complete universe of meditations, musings, and ruminations on love – what it means to like one other, what it means to be beloved by one other, the way it feels to fall in love, and the way it feels to fall out of affection – however she has additionally completed so inside a recognizable sonic framework that can endlessly be distinct, recognizable, and related to this album, Endlessly Is a Feeling. Each pay attention has, thus far, left me with new recollections and cherished moments.
For me, all 13 of those tracks really feel like intimate puzzle items – particular person elements of a bigger image that had been painted or printed, after which carved up and separated for us, the viewers, to take pleasure in in bite-sized quantities. You will have some excessive highs (“Ankles”), achingly uncooked low lows (“Speak”), and a number of complicated emotional in-betweens – these shades and hues that fill the gaps and outline a lot of our on a regular basis lives. I believe this report is swish in its unfiltered, unapologetic vulnerability; Dacus fearlessly sings the quiet elements aloud, giving an actual life voice to the smaller one inside our heads – the one asking questions that we don’t actually wish to reply. The artist clearly bled – metaphorically, symbolically, possibly even actually – to make this music; in spite of everything, how else do you get a line like, “That is bliss, that is Hell; endlessly is a sense and I do know it properly“… You actually have to take a seat in your ache to get there, to convey it to life, and to make it your album’s title. So for all these causes, I’m not simply grateful to have this album out on the earth, however I’m particularly grateful to Lucy Dacus for digging deep to create one thing that helps somebody like me do my very own digging.
How does this album evaluate to 2021’s Residence Video – what are probably the most placing similarities or variations?
Bárbara: Each albums present one thing that Lucy Dacus does expertly: Honesty, poetic lyrics, and autobiography. This new album is extra acoustic, reflecting extra introspection and what might be thought of extra love and keenness associated, whereas Residence Video was extra of an indie rock album with bursts of vitality and rhythm. Within the new album, Lucy Dacus is a grown lady with classes realized and issues skilled, whereas Residence Video is about her childhood or her teenage years seen in retrospection.
Mitch: I bear in mind Residence Video hitting exhausting, and standout songs like “Scorching & Heavy” and “VBS” nonetheless resonate with me to this present day, however personally, the album as an entire doesn’t have the identical cohesive depth and connective tissue that I really feel from Endlessly Is a Feeling. To be clear, each Lucy Dacus album wears its coronary heart on its sleeve and is particular for any variety of causes – I can select moments in No Burden and Historian that proceed to resonate as properly – however for no matter motive, I’ve come to know this newest album not simply as a set of songs, however as a standalone cinematic universe of types. There’s a top quality to Endlessly Is a Feeling that binds every monitor to its fellow songs on each a lyrical and musical stage, so whereas “Ankles” could also be a far cry from “Limerence,” which is a far cry from “Modigliani,” which is a far cry from “Speak” (observe: these 4 songs come one after the opposite within the tracklisting), all of them share some thematic and theatrical DNA.
Clearly Endlessly Is a Feeling isn’t a “idea” album by any means, and love is a fairly large umbrella, however Lucy Dacus has succeeded right here in creating the feeling that after I press play on any certainly one of these songs, I’m coming into a particular a part of her world – a soundscape and panorama that’s distinctive to this particular person, to this second, to this music. I believe this report does what lots of the most celebrated albums of the previous sixty-something years do greatest – going past a mere “assortment of songs,” providing one thing greater, conceptually or in any other case, that in so some ways feels bigger than life. Actual or imagined, that’s my lived expertise with this LP.
Dacus teased Endlessly Is a Feeling with “Ankles,” “Limerence,” “Greatest Guess,” and “Speak.” Are these singles trustworthy representations of the album?
Bárbara: These songs are trustworthy representations of the album they usually might even be among the many favorites, particularly “Ankles” and “Speak.” Falling in and falling out of affection, however largely being in love is the honesty that Endlessly Is a Feeling encapsulates. As a result of Lucy Dacus has confirmed she is in a relationship with Julien Baker, this love story might have simply impressed an incredible album, teased by the loyal tracks like “Ankles” and “Greatest Guess.” Though “Limerence” and “Speak” may present extra doubt or concern, they’re meant to. Love is a complexity and Dacus demonstrates it properly.
Christine: I beloved “Ankles” when it got here out, the low, soothing harmonies of Dacus’ voice on this one appeared to completely go together with the hilarious music video. I’ve been advised over the course of my life that I’ve a reality like a girl in a Renaissance portray – each in complimentary and insulting methods – so Lucy masquerading as a noblewoman which her cherubic eyes and porcelain pores and skin made me smile actual large. I hadn’t recognized what the phrase “Limerence” meant til I heard that music, however that one certain resonated as properly, as did the lyrics about staying busy to keep away from your emotions and faux you’re on the proper course. Type of want she would have launched “Bullseye” as a single however that’s traditional Lucy, burying the lede (the collab with Hozier).
Mitch: I’m going to say “sure” right here, for the entire causes Bárbara and Christine already talked about above: Emotionally, musically, lyrically, these tracks helped set the scene for a daring, breathtakingly lovely reckoning with love full of tender orchestral nuance, soul-stirring reflections on intimacy, and shiver-inducing moments of catharsis and confession. “Greatest Guess” has nonetheless not left my head, months later – it’s certainly one of my favourite tracks off the album, each as a listener and as a romantic. “Speak” can also be proper up there – whereas it’s the musical and emotional antithesis of “Greatest Guess” in a number of methods, it’s so uncovered, passionate, and achingly uncooked – which, for me, made it one other immediately memorable hit.
The title monitor finds Dacus singing, “That is bliss, that is hell, endlessly is a sense and I do know it properly.” What do you make of the album’s title, and what does it imply to you?
Bárbara: The album’s title is one good phrase, and it’s each poetic and romantic. “Endlessly is a sense” signifies that “endlessly” is extra of sentiment, emotion, than it’s concerning time. In love, folks normally say “endlessly,” however maybe nothing lasts endlessly and it implies the expertise, the sensation, is value remembering however not eternal.
Christine: The fangirl in me likes to assume it has one thing to do with Dacus’ girlfriend and boygenius bandmate Julien Baker as a result of I simply love their cute story of getting collectively – and I wouldn’t put it previous Lucy to speak frankly about how an exquisite, endlessly relationship also can have spots of hell. And later within the music she references a zipper tie, and Julien’s received a music referred to as “Ziptie” from Little Oblivions… however hey, don’t get me began down this rabbit gap. Suffice it to say that it appears to be about feeling that you may wish to be with somebody endlessly, however even when that adjustments, it might probably nonetheless be okay and doesn’t diminish the love you had with that particular person.
Mitch: Oof. What else is there to say, you recognize? Love is without doubt one of the greatest experiences an individual can have, and but it might probably additionally produce a few of our most painful moments – and that’s not simply falling out of affection. The arguments might be extra heated, extra nuanced. It’s these closest to you, not strangers, who can twist the dagger within the deepest. And but, you proceed to like your folks. You’re keen on them for who they’re – even for his or her failings and their shortcomings; you don’t attempt to change them. You’re keen on them, and that love comes with sacrifice.
Someplace within the rollout for this album, Dacus was quoted saying the next: “Falling in love, falling out of affection. It’s important to destroy issues as a way to create issues. And I did destroy a extremely lovely life. You possibly can’t really seize endlessly. However I believe we really feel endlessly in moments. I don’t understand how a lot time I’ve spent in endlessly, however I do know I’ve visited.”
Pair that with the lyric, “That is bliss, that is hell, endlessly is a sense and I do know it properly,” and I believe you begin to cobble collectively a kind of retrospective on the highs and lows of a lifelong journey – and that’s, our relationship with love itself. The faces may change over time – we actually hope they don’t, however they could – however the feeling stays the identical; it is available in moments, in passing waves, in fleeing, however cherished walks down reminiscence lane. It comes once we least anticipate it, and leaves far too quickly, and it’s one thing value holding onto for those who can seize ahold of it. I don’t know this for certain, however I believe I see a little bit of Dacus’ perspective, and never solely do I get it, however I additionally recognize precisely the place she’s coming from and why she feels the best way she does. Stay a lifetime with love, and you’ll, too.
Which music(s) stand out for you on the album, and why?
Bárbara: “Bullseye” is a good and heartfelt collaboration with Hozier. “Ankles” and “Large Deal” are maybe certainly one of my favorites as properly. “Ankles” is sensual, a daydreamy music which may as properly come out of a film soundtrack. The acoustic guitar in “Large Deal” may give off the identical vitality and dream-like atmosphere, together with Dacus’ soothing voice and lyrics.
Mitch: Okay, scorching take – “Bullseye” is not my favourite music. I like a pleasant duet and I believe Hozier’s presence on this report is heat and welcoming, however that’s not the music I’m left singing in my head. I discussed the ache of “Speak” and the candy gentle of “Greatest Guess” earlier – whereas I don’t normally fall headfirst (excuse the pun) for an album’s singles, these two proceed to have me in a chokehold. And I’m loving it.
Christine: I just like the croony components of “Limerence,” together with its creepiness and its taking part in with tempo. “Bullseye” is the sort of Americana like, a swingy acoustic music that you just may name nation for those who added a slide guitar. I listened to “Ankles” a number of occasions in a row simply because I like these chugging strings on the outset, and I just like the lyrical juxtaposition of wanton physicality with the domesticity of tea and the crossword.
Do you could have any favourite lyrics thus far? Which traces stand out?
Bárbara: The road mentioned earlier from “Endlessly Is a Feeling,” in addition to “You make me homesick for locations I’ve by no means been earlier than” from “Modigliani.” There are numerous lovely and/or robust lyrics within the album, like in “Bullseye” with Hozier: “The solutions to the questions solely made extra questions / I hope you’re by no means absolutely glad.” In a music that talks about younger love nostalgia, the lyrics have a richfulness to transmit it.
Christine: From “Limerence”: “I’m simply shoveling popcorn into my mouth / So I don’t say the issues I’m considering out loud.” I associated to that.
Mitch: The breakdown in “Greatest Guess” is a tiny recognition that love isn’t perfection, however slightly a relentless work in progress – as a result of we, ourselves, are fixed works in progress. I believe that’s one of the vital human traces I’ve ever heard sung, and I’m so grateful to Lucy Dacus for recognizing and accepting our flaws as part of who all of us are. Hollywood-style romances don’t exist in the true world, and it’s excessive time we began speaking about love in additional lifelike phrases. As somebody who’s in love along with his greatest good friend – for practically ten years and counting – I’m absolutely onboard with how Dacus humanizes these larger-than-life emotions that every one too simply eat us entire.
In spite of everything, it’s a small world
You is probably not an angel
However you’re my woman
You might be my pack a day
You might be my favourite place
You had been my greatest good friend earlier than you had been
My greatest guess on the future
Dacus closes the album with the music “Misplaced Time,” singing, “Nothing lasts endlessly however let’s see how far we get, so when it comes my flip to lose you, I’ll have made probably the most of it.” If this album is a meditation on love and time, what do you make of its conclusions?
Bárbara: The principle conclusion of the album might be that, for love, you should be all-in, dedicated to the particular person, and dedicated to understanding that maybe it’s a win, maybe in the long run it’s a loss, however it’s nice whereas it lasts. Love is dangerous and harmful, and it’s declared regardless of concern, doubt, or any difficulties.
Christine: It’s undoubtedly that theme of being pleased with wanting one thing to final endlessly as a result of it’s so nice, but additionally realizing in some meta method that the chances of it really lasting endlessly are very low, so that you enable your self to each recognize it as “feeling” like endlessly even when your rational thoughts says it received’t – and being pleased with holding all that in your mind and your coronary heart. A frightening process however I suppose if anybody can do it, Lucy can.
Mitch: To reply that with one other quote, “That is bliss, that is Hell; endlessly is a sense and I do know it properly.” We will’t assist however love – it’s in our nature, it’s part of our DNA – and from every little thing she’s sung about on this report, it’s protected to say she believes it’s higher to have beloved and misplaced, than by no means to have beloved in any respect. That’s half one of many album’s two main takeaways; I believe the second is to, as she says, take advantage of it – to like unabashedly and unapologetically, to like wholeheartedly and deliberately. You possibly can go an entire week saying “I like you” to your associate, with out excited about what these phrases imply. Autopilot comes simple; don’t fall into that entice. Keep in mind what these phrases imply whenever you say them; really feel their weight, really feel their depth and heft. To like and be beloved is a privilege, and I believe by this album, Lucy Dacus acknowledges simply how highly effective love really is.
The place do you’re feeling Endlessly Is a Feeling sits within the pantheon of Lucy Dacus’ discography?
Bárbara: It could not sit on the high of the record, however it is a watershed in Lucy Dacus’ profession. Whereas a few of her high or recognized songs are about heartbreak or different gloomy subjects (like “Nightshift”), on this album we see a modified Dacus, one that’s in love or that displays on it from a greater place, and it exhibits within the acoustics, the lyrics, the emotion… There’s additionally the aftertaste of boygenius and the success from their previous album, now mixed with Lucy Dacus herself.
Christine: It’s exhausting to guage this one towards the remainder of Dacus’ discography as a result of that is the one one which’s come post-boygenius-world-domination. Not that simply because she has three Grammys and worldwide fame now, however extra as a result of she’s been by an enormous quantity between her final solo album and now – collaborative songwriting, world journey, new love, a press tour to finish all press excursions. In the long run it’s an evolution of her sound in which you’ll be able to hear her bandmates’ affect (Phoebe Bridgers on “Limerence,” Baker on “Misplaced Time”), or at the very least I flatter myself into considering I can hear it. However she’s nonetheless her introspective self, and it’s nonetheless a Lucy Dacus album that can make me cry each unhappy and joyful tears.
Josh: I haven’t listened to all of her music, however I’m snug saying that is about nearly as good as her current work with boygenius and all.
Mitch: All of my soapboxing on love apart, I actually assume Endlessly Is a Feeling finds Lucy Dacus – the singer and the songwriter – at her most susceptible, her most uncovered, her most genuine, and her most expressive. I really feel the feelings in these songs in a method that I seldom expertise by most music, and even within the pantheon of Dacus releases – which is occurring a full decade now – Endlessly Is a Feeling stands out for its depth, its flare, its grace, its subtlety, and its coronary heart. I do assume it’s the perfect Lucy Dacus album but – as I mentioned on the high, it’s a masterpiece, a triumph, and an entire world unto itself.
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an album by Lucy Dacus
