How to Get Talking Again, With Lucy Dacus of boygenius

Modern Love

The New York Times

Nytimes, Redemption, Society & Culture, New York Times, Love, Essay, Storytelling, Loss, Nyt

4.4 • 8.7K Ratings

🗓️ 12 March 2025

⏱️ 35 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On her fourth solo album, “Forever Is a Feeling” (out March 28), Lucy Dacus contemplates the fears and delights that go along with falling hard for someone. The song “Best Guess” celebrates the leap of faith involved in committing to a partner with the knowledge that both of you will change over time. And in another track called “Talk,” a couple realizes they’ve grown apart because they have nothing more to say to each other. In this episode, Dacus reads Molly Pascal’s Modern Love essay, “How the ‘Dining Dead’ Got Talking Again,” about a husband and wife who set out to bring conversation back into their marriage. And Dacus tells Anna Martin why she’s not afraid to put in the work for long-term love.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Love now and...
0:03.0	Love was stronger than anything you know.
0:07.0	And I love you more than anything.
0:10.0	Modern love.
0:11.0	There's to love.
0:12.0	Love.
0:13.0	Love.
0:16.0	From the New York Times, I'm Anna Martin.
0:19.0	This is Modern Love.
0:20.0	Every week, we bring you stories and
0:22.1	conversations inspired by the Modern Love column. We talk about love, sex, friends, family, and all
0:29.1	the messiness of human relationships. When I think about today's guest, indie rock darling,
0:34.6	Lucy Dacus, there is one lyric that is seared into my mind because it is
0:39.1	maybe too vivid. It's this awkward description of a kiss and it's in her 2018 song, Night Shift.
0:45.8	The first time I tasted somebody else's spit, I had a coughing fit.
0:56.8	Ech. Dacus always sounds like she's taking her lyrics straight from the pages of her old diaries on our solo albums and when she plays with the Grammy-winning trio Boy Genius.
1:06.3	For example, in songs like First Time, I can hear the thrill and the drama of being in your 20s and falling in love and out of love and back in love again.
1:30.8	Dakis has a new album out on March 28th.
1:33.0	It's called Forever Is a Feeling.
1:36.7	And on this record, she sounds like she's moving into yet another era.
1:39.9	She's singing more about queer love and lust,
1:43.9	and being ready to commit to someone, or at least try to, for the long term.
	...

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