Lucy Dacus returns with her most emotionally fine and rich record yet, “Forever Is A Feeling.” The new 13-track project is a delicate, soul-searching exploration of love, loss, longing, and the quiet resilience that stitches them together. Clocking in at just under 44 minutes, this is Dacus at her most raw, reflective, and resonant.
Lucy Dacus herself, Jake Finch, Andrew Lappin, Blake Mills, Collin Pastore, and Bartees Strange all produced “Forever Is A Feeling,” which contains delicate and intense textures. The new record also features a hauntingly beautiful collaboration with Irish singer-songwriter Hozier, while Hockley’s boy genius bandmates Phoebe Bridgers and Julien Baker add background vocals, deepening the emotional impact of the record.
The album begins with “Calliope Prelude,” a gentle warm-up that ushers listeners into Dacus’s tender world. Standout cuts like “Ankles” and “Talk” explore the emotional gray areas of desire, disconnection, and restraint. “Ankles” embodies the agony of yearning for someone you cannot have, while “Talk” addresses the quiet disintegration of intimacy in a long-term relationship that has lost its language.
On “Bullseye,” Dacus teams up with Hozier for what she describes as an “ideal breakup,” a mutual, mournful goodbye full of love but no durability. It’s a song that hurts in unison, constructed from a base of empathy rather than bitterness.
The album’s closing track, “Lost Time,” falls like a whisper in the dark. With its discreet, unadorned confession of I love you, Dacus leaves you with an ending sentiment equal parts bold and open. Just as compelling is the album’s title track, “Forever Is A Feeling,” a deftly crafted ode to the notion that some feelings can outlive even the relationships that created them. With “Forever Is A Feeling,” Lucy Dacus digs into the emotional recesses we avoid. This record is a victory in narrative, intimacy, and composition.
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