Cover Photo via Style Weekly
In her third full-length album, Lucy Dacus analyzes the memories of her upbringing in Richmond, Virginia while telling the heart-rending story of her youth.
From her graceful debut album No Burden to her stellar second album Historian, Lucy Dacus has made a name for herself in the indie music world. She is continuously embracing her sophisticated lyrics with hits like “Night Shift.” Dacus is also a notable part of the infamous group boygenius with close friends Phoebe Bridgers and Julien Baker, which is a great example of artistic capabilities. Alas, Lucy Dacus returns with a brand new project — a musical memoir, if you will.
On June 25th, the singer-songwriter released her beautifully-written LP Home Video, an auto-biographical compilation of Dacus’ memories as a teenager. The album perfectly encapsulates her experiences growing up along with themes of vulnerability, loyalty and love. Dacus’ poignant harmonies and laid-back vocals creates a well-balanced musical flow filled with raw emotions. Filled with upbeat melodies and sorrowful ballads, Home Video thematically introduces us to a new nostalgic aspect of her life — something that has remained untouched in her previous work.
“Being back here makes me hot in the face / Hot blood in my pulsing veins / Heavy memories weighing on my brain” the singer belts out in album opener “Hot & Heavy,” a track (originally about a friend) in which Dacus realizes she has outgrown old versions of herself. With a pulsing indie-rock melody and her confident vocals, the nostalgic track doesn’t only unveil a new sound, but it introduces the personal stories she’s about to tell that caused her to be who she is today. There are a variety of fun-loving and uplifting tunes such as “First Time,” which is about her first time feeling love, and “Brando,” a song about an over-dramatic friend from her youth.
In true Lucy Dacus fashion, there are plenty of melancholic songs with a dark turn and noteworthy collaborations. In the song “Please Stay,” Dacus reunites with boygenius members to relive a traumatic encounter: Dacus begs a friend to not take their life, but to keep hanging on. The lyrics are somber, as she lists things that can be done on another day as an alternative to ending their life. She retouches on this moment of solitude in another track called “Going Going Gone,” which is an acoustic track with a sing-a-long feel about her awkward years of dating. It’s Home Video’s most cherished song, as it was all recorded in one take, includes the angelic voices of boygenius and Mitski, and an uplifting ending where Dacus thanks everyone in the studio for being a part of such a heartwarming moment. These emotional songs are riddled with engaging arrangements and silver-linings, which help capture the complicated world Dacus is illustrating in each song.
There are plenty of memorable moments throughout Home Video, but the one track that didn’t quite hit the mark is the closing track “Triple Dog Dare.” The lyrics are wholesome as she discovers her feelings for (yet) another friend and her hidden sexuality, but the track doesn’t match the rest of the album’s intensity. Regardless, the song serves as Dacus’ closing statement — she’s leaving her adolescence behind and moving on with her life.
With personal narratives and a new diverse indie sound, it is clear that Lucy Dacus wrote Home Video for herself and is sharing her stories with the rest of the world. She sought the opportunity to embody her past, and the result is a memoir that is bold, nostalgic and experiential. By finding a way to fundamentally define her adulthood and experimenting with new sounds, Home Video is Dacus’ most intimate and best work to date.
Listen to Home Video by Lucy Dacus on Spotify or Bandcamp.
I'm a full-time music journalist/photographer from Houston, number one Paramore fan and Husky dog owner. I have a B.S in Radio-Television-Film from UT Austin and a M.A in Mass Communications from the University of Houston, which makes me smart! On top of being an avid concert-goer and movie fanatic, I love bonding with others over the power of local music and media.
