Lucy Dacus is the most underrated member of boygenius
For those unaware, boygenius is the name of a singer-songwriter supergroup composed of musical artists Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus, and Julien Baker. Separately, they all have been very successful, with Phoebe Bridgers even opening for Taylor Swift during a leg of her “Eras” Tour. This combination of loyal fan bases, musical ability, and cohesion has made them more successful as a collective than they had been previously as solo artists. For example, at the Grammys this year, boygenius took home three awards; Best Alternative Music Album, Best Rock Performance, and Best Rock Song. While I am an ardent fan of all three of their solo careers, I feel the most underrated member of this group is Lucy Dacus, whose lyricism, sound, and range go largely unnoticed—even as the group's popularity and recognition skyrocket.
Since her first album, No Burden, released in 2016, Dacus has been dropping singles and albums at a regular rate, with her latest solo project being the dual singles release, “Home Again / It’s Too Late”, from September 2022. In between these bookend releases is a myriad of absolute bangers that keep a recognizable sound and mood, while also experimenting with different musical focuses and covering a variety of deeply poignant and complicated themes such as heartbreak, identity, mental health struggles, strained parental relationships, and growing up in a conservatively religious background as a LGBTQIA+ person.
For those wondering where to start, I would first have to recommend the lead single off of her sophomore album, Historian: “Night Shift.” This song is not only her most well-known, but is also one of the longer tracks in the entirety of her discography. I find this feat impressive because not only did she create a song that resonated with her fanbase and beyond, but it managed to keep listeners engaged for all six minutes and thirty-two seconds of its runtime. The sound of this song is much more typically alternative-genre sounding, with it being largely driven by electric guitar and having a sound progression that starts small but builds and ends in an explosion, showing off Dacus’s full vocal range.
If you don’t want to wait for the more traditional rock sounds to kick in, feel free to give No Burden’s second track, “Troublemaker Doppelgänger,” a listen. Upon the song's first sonic moment, there is an immediate darker quality, and Dacus really lets her lower range free with a slightly gravelly twinge. “VBS,” then, from her latest album (and my personal favorite), Home Video, offers a more noticeably electronic sound while maintaining Dacus’s core roots in traditional alternative and rock stylings.
If her familiar, yet fresh, array of sonic choices is not enough to sell you, then her absolute mastery of lyricism most certainly will. Those who know a thing or two about boygenius, know that their most noticeable hit is a song off their debut album, the record, called “Not Strong Enough.” The song boasts numerous hard-hitting and poignant lyrical images, but one line that seems to stick out across listeners is the bridge’s refrain, “always an angel / never a god.” In an interview with Rolling Stone, Dacus expresses how she had this lyric in her back pocket for a while, eventually finding a place in the supergroup’s most notable work.
Personally, I appreciate Dacus’s innate narrative quality when writing, often taking the listener through a, or a variety of, scenes in the song’s journey. A shining example of this is in the song “Thumbs,” where Dacus tells the story of going out for a drink to support her close friend as they had agreed to meet up with their estranged father. Dacus meditates on the difference between genetic and chosen family, loving someone to the point of violence, and forgiveness of others and the self. The opening lines immediately set the scene, “You hung up the phone / And I asked you what was wrong / Your dad has come to town / he would like to meet…” They immediately put the reader in a high-stakes and dramatic context rife with intrigue. The art she creates with a pen is powerful and her ability to take everyday, world-changing moments and put them into narrative song is akin to some of the most notable folk and country writers.
I would encourage you to check her out on any and all mainstream music services and hope you find as much enjoyment, sorrow, connection, and contemplation as I have.