Lucy Dacus braves the freezing cold in New York City to share some songs off her playlist and discuss her upcoming solo album, Forever Is a Feeling, on the latest episode of Rolling Stone’s Song Shuffle.
For those new to the show (which you can also find on our Instagram), we ask artists to take the brave, vulnerable step of clicking through some of the songs on their phone. It might seem simple enough, but as Dacus quips at the start, “I hope songs don’t come up that I’m like, ‘I don’t know what this is.’”
Luckily, there were a few leftfield offerings as Dacus discussed tracks by indie favorites Hop Along and Lady Lamb, as well as the great singer-songwriter Elliott Smith and R&B legend (and fellow Virginia hero) D’Angelo. “A top-five artist for me,” Dacus said of D’Angelo, adding, “Every time I host a party, we just start there and see where it goes.”
As for what song from Forever Is a Feeling Dacus thinks fans should put on their own playlists, she singled out “Best Guess.” Describing the track as a “very sweet love song,” Dacus said she’d been circling parts of the tune for a while, including the first verse about “getting ready with someone, being obsessed with them, and then realizing that you’re going to age, but being totally up for that.”
Dacus is set to release Forever Is a Feeling on March 28. It marks her first solo album since 2021’s Home Video and follows the massive success of Boygenius’ 2023 debut, The Record.
Speaking on the title of her new album, Dacus said that “forever,” especially in terms of love, was less about “lock[ing] it down” for eternity and more about “the moments where we feel best.” And those moments, she acknowledged, “do pass, but they’re still meaningful.”
Dacus added, “The moments where I have felt in ‘forever,’ in the way you feel in love, ring on in my life, and have changed me. So they have an effect, even though that exact moment couldn’t last forever.”
