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Last week saw the release of a new album from Lucy Dacus, an indie darling and one-third of the supergroup boygenius. Beloved by Millennial and Gen Z fans, Dacus is especially popular among queer listeners. (All three members of boygenius are queer.)
Forever Is a Feeling has these fans in a tizzy, and the response online has been spirited, to say the least.
The central fixation among fans is yearning. On X and Reddit, fans yearned so much that their experience of listening to the album seemed practically painful. Listeners longed for the kind of love Dacus sings about on the album and pined for the people in their lives.
One track on the album, “Bullseye,” features Irish singer Hozier, a well-known yearner in his own right. Perhaps because of this quality, Hozier is hugely popular among queer listeners and is often referred to as a “lesbian icon.” Fans were beside themselves over this collab, with one X user writing that they felt “blessed” that the two musicians “[came] together combining their powers to reach unprecedented levels of yearning.”
Lucy Dacus’ love songs spark strong emotions
Some of these fans experienced yearning in relation to the relationships Dacus describes on the album.
Dacus is dating fellow boygenius member Julien Baker, and it’s assumed that many of the songs on the album are about her. “lucy dacus and julien baker are the most in love in the world i want to explode,” one fan wrote, with others expressing their simultaneous joy for and jealousy over the couple.
Fans are seriously invested in the relationship, fawning over their love story and comparing Dacus and Baker’s lyrics that seem to reference each other. For many fans, knowing who these songs are about makes them feel more connected to Dacus, as does the fact that her lyrics tend to be deeply personal and specific.
The emotional tenor online following the release was quite impassioned.
Many people reported crying while listening to the album. One Redditor wrote that they were “SCREAMING CRYING THROWING UPPPPPPPPPP,” and an X user posted “lucy dacus im kms btw,” suggesting that the lyrics are so moving it makes them want to die.
In this vein, some fans seemed almost angry at how much the album moved them, despite expressing a love for Dacus and her work. “lucy dacus you are SICK i am sobbing,” wrote one fan. “yo what the FUCK @lucydacus,” wrote another.
Others noted that they were not emotionally stable enough to listen to the album in full. “I honestly don’t think I can handle listening to this album right now,” wrote a fan on Reddit. “I do not like how this album made me feel,” another Redditor noted, later writing that it’s a “fantastic record.”
Part of the reason fans had such emotional responses to the album is that many connect Dacus’ music to their own lives. Some fans noted that the album was hard for them to listen to because it reminded them of past loves or losses, including the painful experience of being in love with your best friend.
Why Lucy Dacus’ fandom differs from pop star fandoms
Though Dacus has become increasingly popular in recent years, the nature of her fandom still differs from that of huge pop stars. For massive stars like Ariana Grande, who released a deluxe version of her album on the same day as Dacus, fans are interested in world domination—vying for chart-topping singles and universal acclaim.
For smaller artists like Dacus, the fan-artist relationship differs. Fans often feel more connected to and have deeper parasocial relationships with musicians who are less famous and feel more like normal people. Indeed, artists like Dacus feel accessible to listeners, even if fans still put her on a pedestal.
This dynamic is even more present when it comes to queer artists. Many fans feel a strong sense of kinship with Dacus and her peers due to a shared identity and the idea that she is representing them in some crucial way. Dacus’ appears to be speaking directly to her fans, igniting these passionate, soul-searching reactions.
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