Lucy Dacus – Home Video
Alternative – Released June 25, 2021 – 11 songs, 46 mins
LUNDI’s album drop
I don’t have much of a build-up for this one other than to say this girl formed a little group with Phoebe Bridgers and Julien Baker back in 2018 but I never tried her solo stuff. She released a new album last week and has been Very buzzy in the indie world at least. For July 23rd, my pick will be Lucy Dacus – Home Video.
LUNDI
I recently dated a girl who gave me access to her MasterClass account. It’s still active. She’s not. If you don’t know what it is, you can learn so much on there. Videos of pros teaching you how to play poker, five star chef’s teaching you cooking skills. It really has everything. If there was a MasterClass on songwriting Lucy Dacus would be the teacher.
Home Video is an immaculate display of song writing. I thought about bringing back the old review style so I could break down every song but I would have gushed for just too long. Dacus has the crafty ability (and apparent life hardships) to write stories instead of songs. Each individual song is so well written that you can picture yourself at the scene. Dacus gives new meaning to music being art with this album.
The lyrics themselves are delicate yet powerful. I was sucked into her tales after just one listen. The accompanying musical companions don’t lack either. Ranging from upbeat to the most subtle of chord progression to a camp fire sing along, the backing band (and Dacus herself) provide just the right music for every track.
I simply have nothing overly bad to say. It’s incredibly sad, it maybe drags a bit in parts and it isn’t breaking any musical grounds but when you write something this strong, does any of that matter?
The album features my dear favourite Phoebe Bridgers and and I expect Dacus may be on track to follow her bandmates (check out boygenius) Punisher success with this album. Home Video is a must listen.
Overall Rating: 8.7/10
Favourite Song: Brando
ROZ
Another week, another new artist. I really can’t stress enough how enjoyable it’s been throughout this entire experience of writing music reviews and how happy I am to be falling headfirst into one new album after another, finding constant diamonds in the rough within the ever-evolving, forever-content generating music industry - so let's dig right in.
I should have known I was in for a treat when I read that Lucy was involved in a side project that included the one and only Phoebe Bridgers, the skeleton lady herself. Talent recognizes talent! I also watched her performance on The Late Show and I was in awe of how similar her voice sounded live when comparing it to the album - I always find that the ultimate quality check for gauging how good an artist may be in a live setting is to check them out without all of the production magic and studio tricks, and Lucy Dacus 100% passes this test.
Now let me put on my producer hat and dig into the music itself. This album shows diversity in both the energy between tracks and the sonic elements within them - from upbeat indie rock (VBS leading that charge, man I love that song) to the slower paced story-driven songs (Thumb comes to mind and I’ll expand on this later). Right away with Hot & Heavy I can tell that I’m really going to enjoy this band's sound, from the drum-kit they have to the guitar pedals they use for their effects. First Time hits you like a ton of bricks with it’s distorted guitars (I can almost feel the grit between my teeth on this one) and that’s only a taste of what’s to come.
VBS is up next, with a mid-tempo groove that perfectly compliments Lucy's soothing voice. I really have to mention that this song has my absolute favorite piece of production on the entire album: the bit about Slayer at 3:01 that leads into an actual explosion of electric guitar! Someone please give that audio engineer a raise because that part is genius. I could probably go on forever about every song to be honest, but finally I'd like to highlight the closer Triple Dog Dare which, unlike many albums, takes full advantage of it’s “closer status” by clocking in at 7:44 and having a bit of everything - that’s how you do it, folks.
Another gigantic standout for me was the songwriting. I typically do find myself leaning more into the production side of things (for my own personal reasons so I definitely have an unconscious bias in that regard). In saying this, I was blown away by Lucy’s songwriting; it felt as if she was the protagonist in 11 little stories, all woven together like a good book or film. I found myself invested in the people she talked about, the dire situations they were put in, and the emotional weight of it all. I probably listened to Thumb 20 times and it hit me the same every time, just gut-wrenching.
Can you tell that I was impressed? As you can tell by my (longer than usual) review this week, I genuinely enjoyed this album from front to back. Lucy Dacus, you made a new fan today. This album really caught me off-guard and I love when that shit happens! I only have one request for you - please, please go to Coachella this year.
Overall Rating: 8.6/10
Favorite Song: VBS
REID
Virginian native, Lucy Dacus, is the latest new artist pour moi in the TSR journey. I did a little digging and saw she has collaborated with Phoebe Bridgers and a third woman I don’t know, Julian Baker, in the band ‘boygenius’. Solid example of the Spider-Man pointing at Spider-Man meme. Of course PB is real and LD is the imposter. (Yes, I’ll cool it with the meme references.)
The first half of the album is decent, with Hot and Heavy and First Time doing the heavy lifting. We’re introduced to her super mellow style and there are plenty of positives. Once we get to Cartwheel, I begin to really notice the monotony. And it continues for the rest of the album, with only that little riff in Brando peaking my interest.
Home Video is soooo sad and simply lacks jam. I understand it’s a sound a lot of folks enjoy but it just wears me down. And this is coming from a huge Radiohead fan. I envision a live performance where she simply sits in a chair, staring forward expressionless, aside from singing of course. I doubt I return to anything other than the opening track with this album. If I keep listening, my future is a benevolent black hole (ref: Cartwheel).
Overall Rating - 6.2/10
Favourite Song - Hot and Heavy