Atwood Journal’s writers focus on Lucy Dacus’ stunningly intimate, fantastically radiant, and lyrically wealthy fourth album ‘Eternally 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 start out, what’s your relationship with Lucy Dacus’ music?
Josh Weiner: I like her as a lot as the following man. I haven’t made it by way of her full catalogue, however I listened to a few of her most up-to-date data in addition to her work with boygenius, so I can affirm that she is a gifted musician and robust vocalist.
Bárbara Martínez Campuzano: I’ve listened to Lucy Dacus for fairly some time now. Albums like House Video or Historian include songs that I hearken to each day, and I particularly like boygenius and the best way the three artists (Phoebe, Lucy, and Julien) work collectively. Their album the document was one in every of my favorites of 2023.
Christine Buckley: I’d identified of Lucy for awhile however didn’t actually get into her and her music till I bought into boygenius. She is such an unbelievable poet – she’s even mentioned issues about how she solely actually writes music to get her lyrics on the market, not the opposite means round. I really 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 one in every 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 House Video was the primary album of hers that I consciously and actively listened to in full. I assume you can name me a passive fan, in that I don’t all the time 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 all through.
What are your preliminary impressions and reactions to Eternally Is a Feeling?
Bárbara: It’s a good album with good manufacturing, though I believe I bought 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 identified from her previous three albums continues to be there, however the themes have reworked.
Christine: Lucy has all the time been a grasp of a sluggish construct, and he or she’s executed it once more on Eternally 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 an excellent 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 executed so inside a recognizable sonic framework that may eternally be distinct, recognizable, and related to this album, Eternally Is a Feeling. Each pay attention has, to date, left me with new reminiscences and cherished moments.
For me, all 13 of those tracks really feel like intimate puzzle items – particular person components 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 may have some excessive highs (“Ankles”), achingly uncooked low lows (“Speak”), and loads 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 document is swish in its unfiltered, unapologetic vulnerability; Dacus fearlessly sings the quiet components aloud, giving an actual life voice to the smaller one inside our heads – the one asking questions that we don’t actually need 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; eternally is a sense and I do know it effectively“… You actually have to take a seat in your ache to get there, to carry 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 this planet, 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 House Video – what are probably the most putting 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 could possibly be thought of extra love and keenness associated, whereas House 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 discovered and issues skilled, whereas House Video is about her childhood or her teenage years seen in retrospection.
Mitch: I bear in mind House Video hitting laborious, 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 Eternally 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 effectively – however for no matter motive, I’ve come to know this newest album not simply as a group of songs, however as a standalone cinematic universe of kinds. There’s a high quality to Eternally Is a Feeling that binds every monitor to its fellow songs on each a lyrical and musical degree, 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” (be aware: these 4 songs come one after the opposite within the tracklisting), all of them share some thematic and theatrical DNA.
Clearly Eternally 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 once I press play on any one in every of these songs, I’m coming into a particular a part of her world – a soundscape and panorama that’s distinctive to this individual, to this second, to this music. I believe this document does what most of the most celebrated albums of the previous sixty-something years do finest – 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 Eternally Is a Feeling with “Ankles,” “Limerence,” “Greatest Guess,” and “Speak.” Are these singles devoted representations of the album?
Bárbara: These songs are devoted 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 principally being in love is the honesty that Eternally 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 important album, teased by the loyal tracks like “Ankles” and “Greatest Guess.” Though “Limerence” and “Speak” might present extra doubt or concern, they’re meant to. Love is a complexity and Dacus demonstrates it effectively.
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 identified what the phrase “Limerence” meant til I heard that music, however that one positive resonated as effectively, as did the lyrics about staying busy to keep away from your emotions and fake you’re on the best course. Type of want she would have launched “Bullseye” as a single however that’s basic 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 stunning 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 one in every of my favourite tracks off the album, each as a listener and as a romantic. “Speak” can be proper up there – whereas it’s the musical and emotional antithesis of “Greatest Guess” in loads 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, eternally is a sense and I do know it effectively.” 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. “Eternally is a sense” signifies that “eternally” is extra of sentiment, emotion, than it’s relating to time. In love, folks often say “eternally,” however maybe nothing lasts eternally 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 a beautiful, eternally relationship also can have spots of hell. And later within the music she references a zipper tie, and Julien’s bought a music known 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 you could need to be with somebody eternally, however even when that adjustments, it may possibly nonetheless be okay and doesn’t diminish the love you had with that individual.
Mitch: Oof. What else is there to say, you already know? Love is without doubt one of the finest experiences an individual can have, and but it may possibly additionally produce a few of our most painful moments – and that’s not simply falling out of affection. The arguments could 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 like them for who they’re – even for his or her failings and their shortcomings; you don’t attempt to change them. You like 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. You must destroy issues with a view to create issues. And I did destroy a extremely stunning life. You’ll be able to’t really seize eternally. However I believe we really feel eternally in moments. I don’t understand how a lot time I’ve spent in eternally, however I do know I’ve visited.”
Pair that with the lyric, “That is bliss, that is hell, eternally is a sense and I do know it effectively,” 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 after we least count on it, and leaves far too quickly, and it’s one thing value holding onto when you can seize ahold of it. I don’t know this for positive, 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. Dwell 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 one in every of my favorites as effectively. “Ankles” is sensual, a daydreamy music which may as effectively come out of a film soundtrack. The acoustic guitar in “Large Deal” might 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 really like a pleasant duet and I believe Hozier’s presence on this document 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 mild of “Greatest Guess” earlier – whereas I don’t often 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 parts of “Limerence,” together with its creepiness and its taking part in with tempo. “Bullseye” is the form of Americana like, a swingy acoustic music that you just may name nation when you 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 to date? Which traces stand out?
Bárbara: The road mentioned earlier from “Eternally Is a Feeling,” in addition to “You make me homesick for locations I’ve by no means been earlier than” from “Modigliani.” There are lots of stunning and/or sturdy 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 happy.” 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 pondering out loud.” I associated to that.
Mitch: The breakdown in “Greatest Guess” is a tiny recognition that love shouldn’t be perfection, however reasonably a continuing work in progress – as a result of we, ourselves, are fixed works in progress. I believe that’s one of the crucial 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 actual world, and it’s excessive time we began speaking about love in additional real looking phrases. As somebody who’s in love together with his finest buddy – for almost 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 any case, 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 finest buddy earlier than you had been
My finest guess on the future
Dacus closes the album with the music “Misplaced Time,” singing, “Nothing lasts eternally 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 primary conclusion of the album could possibly be that, for love, you have to be all-in, dedicated to the individual, and dedicated to understanding that maybe it’s a win, maybe ultimately it’s a loss, however it’s nice whereas it lasts. Love is dangerous and harmful, and it’s declared regardless of worry, doubt, or any difficulties.
Christine: It’s undoubtedly that theme of being pleased with wanting one thing to final eternally as a result of it’s so nice, but in addition realizing in some meta means that the chances of it really lasting eternally are very low, so that you permit your self to each recognize it as “feeling” like eternally 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 job however I assume if anybody can do it, Lucy can.
Mitch: To reply that with one other quote, “That is bliss, that is Hell; eternally is a sense and I do know it effectively.” We will’t assist however love – it’s in our nature, it’s part of our DNA – and from every thing she’s sung about on this document, it’s secure 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’ll be able to go an entire week saying “I really like you” to your associate, with out eager about what these phrases imply. Autopilot comes straightforward; don’t fall into that entice. Bear in mind what these phrases imply once 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 way of this album, Lucy Dacus acknowledges simply how highly effective love really is.
The place do you’re feeling Eternally Is a Feeling sits within the pantheon of Lucy Dacus’ discography?
Bárbara: It might not sit on the prime of the record, however this can be a watershed in Lucy Dacus’ profession. Whereas a few of her prime or identified songs are about heartbreak or different gloomy matters (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 laborious 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 way of 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 hear her bandmates’ affect (Phoebe Bridgers on “Limerence,” Baker on “Misplaced Time”), or a minimum of I flatter myself into pondering I can hear it. However she’s nonetheless her introspective self, and it’s nonetheless a Lucy Dacus album that may make me cry each unhappy and joyful tears.
Josh: I haven’t listened to all of her music, however I’m comfy 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 Eternally Is a Feeling finds Lucy Dacus – the singer and the songwriter – at her most weak, her most uncovered, her most genuine, and her most expressive. I really feel the feelings in these songs in a means that I seldom expertise by way of most music, and even within the pantheon of Dacus releases – which is happening a full decade now – Eternally Is a Feeling stands out for its depth, its flare, its grace, its subtlety, and its coronary heart. I do assume it’s the very best Lucy Dacus album but – as I mentioned on the prime, it’s a masterpiece, a triumph, and an entire world unto itself.
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an album by Lucy Dacus
