Lucy Dacus – 2019 EP 12” Matador Records

Recorded in here-and-there studio spurts over the last two years, ‘2019 ‘will be released November 8th, 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 (not an official holiday, though we’re told Chris Christie often took that day off), Halloween, Christmas, and New Year’s. 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 try- ing to answer that question,” she says, and “this EP 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 willing- ness to do something different and sometimes even out of character.” “Emotionally raw and intimate… (Lucy Dacus has) A big, unadulterated voice and tattooable lyrics.” -The New York Times “Lucy Dacus’ voice has a snuggly allure, it’s tone warm, deep, and decadent” – Pitchfork “She never sounds less than supremely confident on lyrics that make the personal political, and vice versa, ac- companied by musical arrangements that are sometimes downright majestic.” – Paste Magazine