By Kate Wiselogel, Contributor

[Geffen Records; 2025]

Rating: 7/10

Key Tracks: “Ankles,” “Talk,” “Best Guess”

Lucy Dacus has released her highly anticipated third album, Forever is a Feeling. The album is her follow-up to her critically acclaimed 2021 album, Home Video. Not only is this her first full-length solo album in three years, but it also comes after her year-long stint as a member of the supergroup boygenius.  

On Forever is a Feeling, Dacus delves into largely uncharted territory in her music thus far: the trials and tribulations of romantic love. In an interview with Dazed, Dacus stated, “I don’t really have that many songs about romantic love. I have a lot of songs about friends, and I have a lot of songs about love in the grand scheme; but when it comes to romantic love, it’s not a territory I’ve really plumbed.” In the lead-up to the release of Forever is a Feeling, Dacus confirmed her relationship with fellow boygenius member Julien Baker, and the album itself tracks the trajectory of falling in love.  

Read more: Album Review: Black Country, New Road – Forever Howlong

The complex emotions that Dacus captures on this album, from sexual attraction (“Ankles”) to limerence to melancholy (“Modigliani”), allow for Dacus to expand the strength of her songwriting. While lackluster at times, it’s clear that the album’s production is centered around highlighting Dacus’ lyricism. 

Forever is a Feeling is perhaps best in its more emotionally fraught moments. The album really seems to shine on songs like “Big Deal” and “Talk.” The first non-instrumental track on the album, “Big Deal” explores the aftermath of a bombshell confession of love. One that both participants in the conversation know “could never work.”  

“Talk” starts as a somber and almost ominous story of two lovers who can no longer figure out how to communicate that eventually crescendos into Dacus mournfully asking, “Why was our best sex in hotels / And our worst fights in their stairwells.” Dacus’ vocal restraint at the beginning of the song imitates the tense feeling that characterizes the relationship discussed in the song’s lyrics, and by the time the song reaches its bridge and Dacus fully lets go, the catharsis is palpable.  

While the album abounds in romantic tracks such as “Most Wanted Man” and “Come Out,” the most charming of these is “Best Guess.” This song has quickly become an essential part of Dacus’ discography, marking the first time that she has used pronouns in a song to refer to a lover. The song’s chorus revolves around a gambling metaphor with Dacus singing, “If I were a gambling man / And I am / You’d be my best bet.” The song celebrates the uncertainty that comes with being in love. 

Similarly, “Bullseye,” which features Hozier, offers another first for Dacus. While Dacus has featured vocals from Mitski and her boygenius bandmates on past records, this is the first time Dacus has had another artist explicitly featured on one of her songs. Dacus’ experience working vocally with other performers is clear on the song as her and Hozier’s voices blend beautifully. 

The album’s array of mid-tempo ballads can bleed together sometimes, especially regarding tracks such as “For Keeps,” “Forever is a Feeling” and “Come Out.” While the sound of the songs themselves may sound similar, it is once again Dacus’ lyrical prowess that redeems them. The album can at times feel a little bit half-baked as certain songs struggle to find their footing, if they do at all.

Two big examples of this are “Most Wanted Man” and the album’s final song, “Lost Time.” “Most Wanted Man” can at first read as incongruous, especially at the beginning when it’s hard to make sense of Dacus’ rushed delivery, but by the time the song reaches its bridge, the delivery feels like the rightful urgency of chasing down someone because you love them, making for a deeply satisfying listening experience. 

Dacus closes the album with “Lost Time.” A bittersweet yet hopeful track about living in the moment. This song works really well as the album’s closer because it expresses a combination of the angst and romance that the rest of the songs prior to it jostled between. “Lost Time” captures the same idea that the album’s title track attempts to, that of the fleeting nature of love, but in (arguably) a smoother way. 

Forever is a Feeling isn’t a perfect album, it’s not even the best in Dacus’ discography, but it is a complex one. While frustrating at times, there is also something fascinating about watching Dacus attempt to work through and rectify all of the different emotional states that she does on this record. It’s clear that Dacus was trying new things with this record and even if she doesn’t always succeed, that in and of itself is admirable. 

Listen here: https://open.spotify.com/album/2PedUC4azy5ywqWp8gVVrs?si=sfFAbqc0R2KdTK6v1ezNsQ