By Ada Kessler

Lucy Dacus’ new album, Forever is a Feeling, is like nothing she’s ever done before. This album is Dacus’ fourth studio album, but it is distinctively different from her other releases, exploring themes and sounds previously untouched. This album comes after Dacus’ four year hiatus from solo music, which led to very high expectations of the album from fans, but was Forever is a Feeling worth the wait?

The album is 13 tracks and just under 45 minutes long. It was mainly produced by Dacus herself as well as Blake Mills and a few smaller contributors. The album only has one feature, “Bullseye” with Hozier, but it is the first song on any of her solo albums. Despite only having one feature, there are backing vocals from Julien Baker and Phoebe Bridgers, Dacus’ fellow bandmates in the group boygenius. 

Forever is a Feeling as a whole centers around love and relationships. It focuses on losing relationships, but also fostering new ones. The album largely discusses finding feelings of forever in these relationships, even if they don’t last. This creates a strong mix of love songs and unrequited love songs throughout the album that give it depth as well as variety. 

The love songs were undoubtedly the strongest part of Forever is a Feeling. “Best Guess” and “Most Wanted Man” in particular were amazing. Both songs stood out due to their catchy upbeat tunes and heartfelt lyrics, especially in their bridges. The title track “Forever is a Feeling” had the best bridge of all the songs. It was very simple, it just repeated the lyrics “forever is a feeling” over a soft drum beat. Regardless of the simplicity, the bridge has an ethereal sound that perfectly captures the feeling Dacus is trying to convey.

The unrequited love songs were also quite strong. “Talk” and “Big Deal” both  portray the feeling of a one-sided relationship very well. “Talk” has a great build up lyrically and musically as does “Big Deal,” but “Big Deal” has a more subtle build with slower music, allowing its hard hitting lyrics to take the focus. “For Keeps” is also subtle and quite slow, but the lyrics beautifully describe a relationship before ending with a gut punch saying it will never last. In “Bullseye,” Hozier and Dacus’ voices mesh together very well as they deliver another heartbreaking song about a past relationship.

Certain songs were much weaker, though, particularly the song “Limerence.” The chords felt far too slow and seemed to drag the song on forever despite it only being three minutes. This completely took away from the lyrics which build to be very impactful despite being shoddy in the beginning. “Ankles” is another weaker song from the album. Upon first listen, it was quite enjoyable and fun, but it turned very bland upon more listens. 

The album as a whole felt like it lacked the prominent guitar chords found in Dacus’ other albums. Her previous albums feature guitar pretty frequently and on each album, there is at least one song where the music cuts out and there is a big instrumental solo, typically a guitar riff. This album, however, lacked that. Guitar moments were still used, but there wasn’t a true instrumental only moment where the power of the guitar could be felt. 

The closest the album came was in its final song, “Lost Time,” which built up to have heavy guitar elements near the end of the song, but lyrics still played over top. The moment still worked and in fact faded into a beautiful live version of the song that ended the album on a great note, but the exclusion of these big instrumental moments was certainly felt. These moments are typically found in the longest song on each of Dacus’ albums which fall at about seven to eight minutes. This album, however, lacked a song of this length which made it feel a little bit empty.

Forever is a Feeling still works very well without these elements, but their exclusion makes it feel just a tad incomplete. Additionally, it makes it feel a little bit less like a Lucy Dacus album and more like any other album. These long songs with strong guitar build ups were a staple for each album, so not including one on this album feels a bit out of the blue. Of course, Dacus has had a four year hiatus from solo music so her sound won’t be exactly how it used to be before, but the exclusion of these elements was disappointing nonetheless.As a whole, Forever is a Feeling is a powerful account of love and heartbreak full of poignant lyrics and enchanting music. It delivers a touching message that we should appreciate the good and the bad because nothing lasts forever. The album was certainly worth the wait and it’s definitely worth giving a listen.