Lucy Dacus

Later this month on June 25th, Lucy Dacus will release her new album, Home Video, via Matador. Today, she presents “Brando,” the album’s fourth track in a string of emotive singles – “VBS,” “Hot & Heavy,” and “Thumbs.” Continuing to showcase Dacus’ incredible storytelling and songwriting, “Brando” weaves together Old Hollywood references with frank observations of a temperamental relationship: “You called me cerebral // I didn’t know what you meant // But now I do. Would it have killed you // to call me pretty instead? //I’m in a second story window // and you’re yelling at me “Stella!” // and I’m laughing cause you think you’re Brando but you’ll never come close.” Hushed casio drums give way to a swell of instrumentation – synthesizer, synth hi hats, a range of guitars, and percussion. Dacus’ melody is an instant earworm.

“‘Brando’ refers to a very dramatic friend I had in high school whose whole personality was the media he consumed,” says Dacus. “He showed me a lot of amazing movies and music, but I think he was more interested in using me as a scrapbook of his own tastes than actually getting to know me. He claimed to know me better than anyone else but I started to feel like all he wanted from me was to be a scene partner in the movie of his life.”

Home Video is Dacus’ “most personal album to date, recounting her coming of age, in Richmond, Virginia. She sings about lost friendships, queer love affairs, curfews, and other adolescent pursuits” (New Yorker). It displays her ability to use the personal as portal into the universal as the songs capture that specific moment in time growing up where emotions and relationships start becoming more complex — the joys, the excitement, the confusion, and even the heartbreak of going through the process of discovering who you are and where people fit in your life and where you fit in theirs. Dacus’ voice, both audible and on the page, has a healer’s power to soothe and ground and reckon.

Following several dates supporting Bright Eyes in July, Dacus will tour North America in support of Home Video beginning with two hometown shows in Richmond. Dates are selling quickly, with several shows sold out, and tickets are on sale now.