ALBUM REVIEW: On ‘Forever is a Feeling’ Lucy Dacus Falls in Love, Deeply

An imprint of text from a dedication plaque on a bench, pressed into skin. Friends in a kind of beautiful freeze frame of mundanity, playing Grand Theft Auto, ripping a bong, snacking on popcorn. A hypnotic fixation on the gap between a lover’s teeth. A boardroom full of men seeking insight from a young woman about what’s hip, a cardboard cutout of a cowboy in the background. These are just some of Lucy Dacus’ vividly painted scenes off her fourth album, Forever is a Feeling, an ornate exercise in falling deep in love.

Listening to each of Dacus’ records is like watching a bosom buddy grow into themselves, becoming more at ease and self-assured over time. Aptly, then, she’s at her most grown-up here, like your best friend confiding in you that they may have met “the one.” Sparkling with ethereal strings and Dacus’ so-detailed-it’s-head-spinning lyricism, her latest is a baroque exploration of intimacy.

Breathless declarations of devotion meet moments of soft introspection, covering all the many stages of a love affair from its urgent early encounters to the indefinable in-between, the long-term fantasies, and the eventual self-destructive need to blow the whole thing to shreds. Dacus’ vocals are as delicate as ever, but clear-throated and confident alongside arrangements that include harp, violin and keys, whether in a steady duet with Hozier (“Bullseye”); an elegant, minimalist dreamscape (“Come Out”); or a driving, guitar-heavy twanger (“Most Wanted Man”).

As with each of Dacus’ works, Forever is a Feeling offers listeners an infectious anthem that transcends. In this case it’s “Best Guess,” future star of many wedding playlists, as it chronicles that peak of being in love when everything feels possible and the future looms large. “Ankles” precedes this phase when sex with someone new is built up and the stakes are creeping ever higher. And the title track lives in the come-down space when reality sets in and compromising begins. “This is bliss/this is hell,” Dacus sings, and in her hands, you’re honestly not sure there’s much of a difference.

Where Dacus has extensively mined her coming of age across her previous albums, Forever is a Feeling finds her decidedly more fully formed, even when she’s pining for something that’s passed, nostalgic for just a minute ago. It’s her most present work yet, evidence of what happens when you face the discomfort of not getting too ahead of yourself, staying in the moment despite all your worst instincts.

Lucy Dacus’ Forever is a Feeling is out March 28 via Geffen Records.