LUCY DACUS

A glance at her worldwide touring schedule in 2019 shows little sign that Lucy Dacus is slowing down, and in fact, she will release a series of songs titled 2019 to celebrate. Recorded in here-and-there studio spurts over the last two years, 2019 will be released later this year as a physical EP, and will be made up of originals and cover songs tied to specific holidays, each of which will drop around their respective date: Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day (and Taurus season!), Independence Day, Springsteen’s Birthday, Halloween, Christmas, and New Year’s.

In honor of Valentine’s Day, Dacus has released a cover of Edith Piaf’s “La Vie En Rose,” sung in both French and English. Dacus’ clear vocals and faint vibrato float over the chiming piano, a starry-eyed, upbeat take on the classic tune, and a hint at her pop-star potential. “From the first time I heard it, I thought ‘La Vie En Rose’ was a perfect song. Hearing it, I knew that, one day, I would fall in love,” says Dacus, adding “I want someone to listen to this while running at top speed to the doorstep of the person they adore, ready to profess their deep, undying love. (PS, there’s a longer story about singing this song as a duet with my middle school janitor, but it is not concise).”

Dacus uses her gift as a songwriter to help understand and cope with the world around her, including making sense of national holidays, often more geared towards social media boasts and manufactured consumerism than authentic celebration. “What is going on,” she asks herself on these days, retreating from the heightened expectations of holidays to figure out what to make of them and to find her own meaning. “I’ve collected some songs from trying to answer that question,” she says, and “this series seems like the right place to put them next to each other. These songs are self-contained, not indicative of a new direction, just a willingness to do something different and sometimes even out of character.”

2018 was a milestone year for Richmond, VA’s Lucy Dacus. Her widely celebrated sophomore record, Historian, was met by a cavalcade of critical elation, with NPR, Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, NBC News, Slate, The Atlantic, Billboard, Paste, Stereogum, and more choosing it as one of the best albums of the year. Her collaborative EP as 1/3 of boygenius (with Julien Baker and Phoebe Bridgers) landed on many of those same lists, plus Newsweek, The New Yorker, Esquire, and the New York Times. She played revelatory sold-out shows at clubs and festivals alike, and appeared on television sets across the country on CBS This Morning, Late Night with Seth Meyers, and Last Call With Carson Daly.