Lucy Dacus
Feeling good: Lucy Dacus is more than a contender now.
★★★★
Forever Is A Feeling
POLYDOR. CD/DL/LP/MC
Fourth solo album from a third of Boygenius.
WITH HER Grammy and Brit-festooned side-project Boygenius on possibly permanent hold, Lucy Dacus has returned to her day job. Last time out, for all her fierce, left-leaning activism, 2021’s Home Video embraced her Virginian childhood. This time around she’s very much in the present. Forever Is A Feeling is layered, lush and contemplative, so Dacus keeps her anger under the radar, even when she’s “knocking down your door” on the gorgeous closer Lost Time. She tips her hat to Americana, alt-folk and Fiona Apple-esque introspection, while Hozier submits a sterling cameo on Bullseye and her Boygenius bandmates offer scattered backing vocals throughout. She pushes boundaries too, whether deploying soaring strings on Ankles (“pull me by the ankles to the edge of the bed,” indeed), space-age plinking on the title track, distorted slow grunge on Talk or woozy piano on Limerence, a controlled song about uncontrolled desire. She’s more than a contender now.