Hi, everyone. Realthony Dealano here, the internet's busiest music nerd. It's time for a review of this new Lucy Dacus record, Forever is a Feeling.

Beloved singer-songwriter on the indie circuit and one-third of the ever-popular band boygenius, Lucy Dacus is back with a new record. Her fourth album, Forever is a Feeling, which is the four-year follow-up since its predecessor Home Video, which is a record I think you could argue is most successful commercially to date. It was a very personal and thematic release that dove into a lot of formative experiences in Dacus's past.

But we are now in a new era with a new album from Lucy with Forever as a Feeling, and she's coming out a lot stronger on this record with the feelings behind these songs, and many of the narratives feel much more present day.

Now, it's no secret within the boygenius spectrum that Lucy's records tend to be the most subtle and at some points easygoing, both lyrically and musically. It is also no secret currently that Lucy is romantically involved with fellow band member Julien Baker. That was recently announced to the world, which obviously has put a lot of fans in a position where they are imagining many of the romantic narratives of this record happening within that relationship.

For sure, there are definitely some stronger emotions of fueling the songwriting and lyricism on many a song in this tracklist. Take the first full song on the album, for example, "Big Deal", which – sure – may ease us into things with a very general indie singer-songwriter instrumental palate, somewhat spacey production, acoustic guitars, very muted vocal delivery, too. But Lucy going all out on the lyrics of this track with some super intense and deep feelings of love and infatuation.

And these lyrics set the tone for some of the most key moments on the entire record. Case in point, the following song, "Ankles", which – damn. This track with its rhythmic tension building strings on the verses, a very lush, gorgeous hook. And then Lucy, lyrically, really being a woman of action, saying, "So bite me on the shoulder / Pull my hair and let me touch you where I want to / Pull me by the ankles to the edge of the bed and take me like you do in your dreams." Then not too long after, there's also the very cute note about doing the crossword together in the morning.

But yeah, taking this approach has led to a very interesting dynamic on this record to where the music doesn't necessarily have a texture or a flavor to it that sounds super salacious or anything like that, but the storytelling certainly is. Yeah, generally across the record, I would say there is a lot more personality in Lucy's choice of words as we go from sexy to theatrical and hilariously tragic on the song "Limerence". The pianos and strings on this one are quite dramatic and feel like Lucy's performing an old parlor song or something like that. The vibrato on her voice is great. Narrative-wise, it's a song that's all about breaking someone's heart, which, yes, is sad. But there's also a very intentional element of humor to the song as well because the dynamic that's being described and how much of a mismatch it is is just so painfully absurd. You have to wonder, how did she get in this position in the first place?

There are more highlights deeper into the album, like "Talk", for example. This one switches things up nicely with its very crisp and punchy drums, its fuzzy guitars, ominous reverb. Emotionally, Lucy is working through a romantic low point on this one, feeling confused as to why things are so bad and where they went wrong, saying, We used to talk. We don't talk anymore. And some of our best sex was in hotels, but also we were fighting in their stairwells. Which I'll say is another part of a general series of themes on this album, where this romance that Lucy is very consistently singing about on this album, it seems like a lot of this relationship is being pieced together through a series of very difficult to line up meetings, crossing paths here and there. For sure, there's a lot of separation and longing in this dynamic.

After this, another highlight for me is "For Keeps". And despite this being a subtler acoustic number, this song comes through at the very end with a huge rug pull gut punch with the final line that is just a devastating one after Lucy builds up to this moment with all of these statements of, again, just very deep love love and infatuation. We have more longing on the song "Come Out", which is, I think, another very solid, acoustic number. Great songwriting on this one, too.

I think Lucy's hookiest and most accessible moment yet comes in the form of "Best Guess", which is just this very laidback, easy to vibe with indie rock tune, where she's singing about somebody who she sees as her best bet for a life and a future romantically down the road, a very solid, trustworthy partnership. Miraculously, Lucy's vocals actually tie together pretty well with the one and only Hozier, who features on a track with this record, too, though I think that mostly happens by way of him taking a more subtle approach with his singing on the song.

But what holds that one back for me, along with several others on the record is that instrumentally, it just comes off a bit too breezy and forgettable. Another limitation I feel this record has and it shares with Home Video is that vocally, Lucy's singing does tend to run very samey across the album. It's rare that she comes across in a way to where she's really selling these songs. I feel like her biggest attempt at that is in the final moments of the title track of the record. But even that song has its issues because its multiple phases and changes see the momentum of the song getting lost in the process.

But I will remind you, the highlights that I brought up earlier, I still think are great, and I love them. For the most part, I think Lucy's overly measured approach vocally is made up for much of the time by just how strong and bold and in your face her writing is on this album. But sometimes it's just not enough to make every song here a banger because there are some feelings and some moments that honestly you just want to feel by way of the vocal performance, not necessarily having to read super deeply into what she's trying to convey lyrically, which I think would have been a big help on the closing track, for example, especially since that song does tie up a lot of the feelings love so well, especially with the illusions to wedding type imagery there.

I feel like Forever is a Feeling has a lot of great songs and highlights, solid writing all around. Lucy getting much bolder on the lyrical front and the storytelling front is a welcome change of pace. I guess moving forward into the future, I would hope to hear a similar boldness and sense of adventure on the instrumental side and the vocal side, too. I'm feeling a light to decent 7 on this one.

Anthony Fantano, Lucy Dacus. Forever is a Feeling. Forever.