On her third studio album, Lucy Dacus once again provides an awfully considered body of work that evokes pronounced feelings of the loving kind. Effortlessly poignant through the use of seldom metaphors, Dacus hones her ability to evoke a disproportionate amount of understanding and connection with her understated lyricism. As a humble listener, you can’t help but sense the care Lucy has put into Forever Is A Feeling.
So, what does forever feel like? Well, just take some time to steep in this record, and you’ll understand. With diverse enough instrumentation and relatable plays on words, we are treated to a very cohesive listen that provides empathy for any personal situation involving a romantic interest. Forever as a feeling, is the sense of ‘oh my god, I am never not going to love this person’ and here’s all the reasons why and all the possible ways to say it. Lucy herself describes the feeling as those potent emotions, that in the moment, feel like they last forever.
‘Calliope Prelude’, the only instrumental track on the listing, and one not to be ignored, is a short abstract for the LP. Summarizing the feeling, it’s beautiful, yet painful, with heavenly violins that occasionally screech uncomfortably. It leads to an almost cacophony of strings, before settling into a pretty horizon transitioning us into the first standout…
‘Big Deal’, is a wonderful introduction to the feeling of forever. In this instance, it’s about a situation where both parties are in love, but for some undisclosed reason, both know it would never work. However, Dacus wants to make it abundantly clear to the other person, that they’re valued and cared for deeply, regardless of the situation. The irony is made clear in the first verse when Dacus sings ‘Flicking embers into daffodils / You didn’t plan to tell me how you feel / You laugh about it like it’s no big deal / Crush the fire underneath your heel’. This is the first example of an incredibly simple phrase, which speaks volumes to what Dacus is experiencing. The pensive sounding keys create a feeling of nostalgia and sentimentality, the whole vibe of the track really envelops you in this sense of longing. The chorus explains how the love interest in the future has moved on and is about to get married, to which Lucy indulges in making her feelings unashamedly known, ‘But if we never talk about it again / There’s something I want you to understand / You’re a big deal’. With a few repetitions of the tile, and an eerie ambient backdrop to see us through the end of the track, we feel absolutely enamoured by this authentic declaration.
On the second track, we are quickly faced with a familiar sound, for ‘Ankles’ was the first single in the lead up to the album’s release. It is upbeat compared to the first couple of songs. The strings provide a great rhythm that doubles as the riff foundation. The song chronicles the intimate little interactions between a couple, the domestic things, doing the crossword, making them a cup of tea and asking how they slept the night before. But before that, it seems to depict a certain surrender into crossing a physical line that hasn’t been crossed before. There was tension and someone finally pulled the trigger, and the other is letting it happen. The remainder of the song reflects the growing feelings once this line has been crossed with observations like ‘How lucky are we to have so much to lose’. Overall, the song presents quite a warm and relaxing atmosphere, to create an air of content. This is a sweet take on intimacy that leads to a lazy kind of love, one that makes us feel a little fuzzy inside.
‘Limerence’ has a period drama-like sounding intro, with grand piano taking the limelight over the strings. Paired with uncanny lyrics that reflect a more modernist take on romance, it immediately creates an interesting scene. ‘Natalie’s explaining limerence between / Taking hits from a blunt, high as a kite / While Roddy’s playing GTA, I swear / Why is he so good at this game?’. The lines are almost comedic, but before we know it, we’re made to feel the gravity of this unassuming situation. ‘So I don’t say the things that I’m thinking out loud / I’m thinking about / Breaking your heart some day soon’. When these lines are delivered, the tempo slows, and Lucy takes her time singing. It seems as if the relationship is breaking down, and the narrator seeks any kind of distraction or evidence of progress before reality sneaks its way back in. Once again, the song takes a beat, and Lucy reveals that the stillness could be too much to bear. Clearly the couple have reached a stagnant point, it fades out to leave the conclusion open for interpretation… A sure highlight of the album, this one signals the end of the classical sounding tendencies of the first third of Forever Is A Feeling.
For its ‘Talk’ that seems to break away from the illusionary consistency of the first few songs, opening with an unlikely whistle soundbite that will undoubtably take you by surprise. The final pre-release single then leans into an industrial R&B format for the remainder of the song. This brings a sort of grating and cold feeling that till now seemed out of place for such an album, but it works. A track of this nature shows Lucy’s variety and boundaries are wider than might appear on the surface. It seems this song might have been borne out of the confidence that aired so boisterously from boygenius’ stellar 2023 full length debut, the record. Layered vocal ‘Ooos’ make this one feel like a late-night musing about the lack of connection between someone important. It has an edge of contempt, ‘Do I make you nervous or bored / Or did I drink you to the last drop’. But it’s the line ‘Your body looming like a spectre / Hungry as a scythe’ that really brings the pointed message home. We’ve got a bitter main character who’s not enjoying interactions as they used to. This track really takes aim at one of the cornerstones of any relationship, conversation. And it’s without conversing in a satisfying way that leads one to write a song like this.
Then finally we get the titular track in ‘Forever Is A Feeling’, and it cannot be missed, for it explores quite a few sonic landscapes within its short three minutes. The song opens sounding quite hopeful, and you’d be forgiven for thinking it’s going to be a happy song. Closer inspection with the lyrics reveals something in-between. The pre-chorus line ‘I knew the shortcut but shut my mouth / Isn’t that what love’s all about’ sets the tone for a commentary on the nature of loving someone. It can be both positive and negative, a duality. The chorus expands on this idea with the first key change, contrasting crisp acoustic guitar, and the line ‘This is bliss / This is hell / Forever is a feeling / And I know it well’. In the second verse you get more notation of this love story so far, with an unexpected minor chord placement in what sounded like it should have been a major lift. This keeps the listener engaged for the shortly revealed highlight of the track. The payoff comes with the outro, where Phoebe Bridgers and Julien Baker accompany Lucy for a reprise of the title. The iconic harmonizing between them is reminiscent of their supergroup format and will be an absolute welcome gift to fans. As dedicated followers, we have been fortunate to sincerely get to know the singers over their careers, and to have them back on a track together is like a reassurance that we’re not alone.
‘Best Guess’ is another stand out single. It has an understated beginning, that builds out to a genuine display of affection through the music, and you can’t help but smile when listening. The music video adds a lot of value to the experience with this one. An ensemble of icons from the LGBTQIA+ community feature to create a feeling of belonging. This sense of community is evident as we can see Lucy being completely comfortable in her own skin. As for the sentiment of the song, the lyrics are really telling ‘I love your body / I love your mind / They will change / And so will mine’ reflects a clear longevity and heartfelt devotion for someone. The most cherry line though is ‘You were my best friend before you were / My best guess at the future’. We can only assume this is perhaps the chronicle of our fan-favourite love story between Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker. The pair went public about their relationship just days before this new album dropped and so it’s only going to be top of mind for fans alike.
‘Bullseye (with Hozier)’ is a duet which gives us the only two-sided love story of the entire album. One which seems to chart a typical course of young love’s heroic rise and troublesome fall. The difference with this number, is that it acknowledges the permanency of those past experiences. What happened, happened, and the water that flowed underneath those European bridges mentioned in the lyrics, hold significant emotional weight. The metaphor of the bullseye is used in a way to depict a spot-on fit in the moment, at the time, but for whatever reason, the relationship was not to last. Regardless, the bridge near the end of the song bares all ‘Found some of your stuff at the new house / Packed it on accident when I was movin’ out / Probably wrong to think of them as your gifts to me / More like victims of my sentimentality’.
The burden of being so sentimental is often one understood by many. We hold onto the past and some of it brings joy and some just brings sorrow. Even with these challenging memories though, we would often do it all again, and this is perfectly illustrated by the closing lines to the song ‘The world that we built meant the world to me / When one world ends the other worlds keep spinnin’’. Hozier’s contribution to this song is nothing short of brilliant. His vocal atmosphere creates an emotional intelligence that befits the other character in the song, with a slight hint of appropriate bitterness as he sings ‘The answers to the questions only made more questions / I hope you’re never fully satisfied’. Overall, Hozier’s vocal pairing with Lucy ultimately serves to reflect the mutually shared views of our couple. A great collaboration, perhaps an almost inevitable one, and one that could have been a single itself.
As if Lucy couldn’t give us anymore, she decided to complete the record with the strongest tune from Forever Is A Feeling, a rewarding listen titled ‘Lost Time’. Lucy has spoken in an interview with ‘Them’ that she sees albums as movies, with each song substantiating a scene. She sees the end of the album as a perfect place for her favourite songs, as at this point, the audience has earned the entire story arc. She certainly achieves this notion with this final track.
‘Lost Time’ is a soft-spoken lament upon the initial phases of the song, but if you stay for the duration, there is much more breadth to uncover. It opens with the sounds of an outdoor setting, perhaps a garden, with birds chirping and leaves rustling. An ambient environment accompanied by Dacus and her gentle guitar, it feels like we’re getting an exclusive opportunity to sit with Lucy, one on one, and share a moment with her. Our singer appears to be acknowledging how they’ve always truly felt, they love this person and now they’re try make up for that lost time, how bittersweet. This album closer is a full confession, one that doesn’t seem to hold anything back. Accompanied by a more rounded ensemble, Lucy finally declares in the chorus, ‘But I love you and every day / That I knew and didn’t say / Is lost time’.
The verses contrast the chorus, to place us right in the middle of the lovers, in the intimate space between them with lines like ‘I wish that we could have a place that we could share / Not only stolen moments in abandoned halls / Quiet touch in elevators and bathroom stalls’. Once we inevitably return to the second chorus, subtle textures elevate the song’s embrace, with addition of tambourine just enough to increase the dramatic melody. Following on and the song sways beautifully into the bridge and we get another heartwarming confession, ‘Nothing lasts forever but let’s see how far we get / So when it comes my time to lose you / I’ll have made the most of it’. Unexpectedly after this metered rise in energy, the song slows down, and winds itself back up. The lyrics explore a docile scene that builds to a slow-motion crash of cymbals, trudging guitars and molten bass that feels incredibly dense in contrast to the rest of the album. It’s a summation of all the feelings explored, mashed into a few bars where the instrumentation takes over. Underneath, Lucy meditates a stream of consciousness about simple possessions and their ascribed meaningful weight. And just to top it off, the final chorus brings it right back down to a low fidelity tape recording of what sounds like an early demo of this song. A nice touch to materialize the time that’s been lost since Lucy conceived such an idea to put her whole heart into this piece. A perfect album closer.
This is undoubtably an album about love. Presented through many anecdotes, stories, and lore, Lucy strives to communicate the reverence she holds. Ultimately love is an emotion that sticks to us throughout our lifetime, and this translates to the feeling of forever.
Forever, a feeling of many mixed emotions under the guise of love. Forever is indeed a feeling, and Lucy Dacus reminds us so.
