Guitar-wielding singer-songwriter Lucy Dacus has unveiled the latest single from her upcoming album Home Video – the oh-so silky, acoustic-infused VBS.
Short for “Vacation Bible School”, the new offering sees Dacus recruit the musical services of guitarist Jacob Blizzard and drummer/keys extraordinaire Jake Finch, and will be part of her forthcoming record – a follow up to her 2018 outing Historian.
Dacus’s dreamy acoustic guitar-driven constructions are out in full force during the first two thirds of the track, as the boygenuis member whips up a tonal melting pot of sumptuous strums, easy-going back-line rhythms and effortless vocals.
As the track lulls in listeners with an airy sense of sonic security, Dacus pulls the rug from underneath you with a wholly unexpected, totally out-of-the-blue high-gain thrash-a-thon, littered with angst-y, head-bang-inducing six-string stabs and a fierce drum line that pulls no punches on the crash cymbal.
The music video for the track, which you can check out below, was directed by long-time creative collaborator Martin Leong, who was responsible for the visuals accompanying Dacus’s previous single, Hot & Heavy.
Of the track, Dacus commented, “VBS means vacation bible school, and I went to tons of them. It’s where Christian parents send their kids over the winter, spring or summer breaks from school to get closer to God.
“I wrote the song in the van on the way to Nashville to record Home Video after seeing one of those readerboards outside a church advertising a wholesome church camp for kids,” she continued. “I thought about my first boyfriend, who I met at VBS, the resident bad boy who loved Slayer and weed more than Jesus.
“I took it upon myself to save him, and make him stop doing drugs. God, I was so lame.”
Speaking of Home Video, Leong added, “A lot of the album examines navigation of self and how it evolves, and Lucy and I have often talked about bodies, the part they play in our ideation of self, and both connections and disconnection to them.
"We arrived at this world where her physical self is being distorted by the landscape she's present in, both in a beautiful and slightly uncanny way," he continued.
Home Video is available to preorder now ahead of its June 25 release.
