TONYA MOSLEY, HOST:
This is FRESH AIR. Lucy Dacus is a young singer-songwriter perhaps best known as one-third of the trio boygenius, along with Julien Baker and Phoebe Bridgers. Jeffrey Lewis is a middle-aged singer-songwriter who isn't very well-known but is the author of at least 30 albums and EPs. Each has a new album. Dacus' is called "Forever Is A Feeling," and Lewis' is titled "The Even More Freewheelin' Jeffrey Lewis." Our rock critic Ken Tucker says that between the two of them, they demonstrate the wide musical and emotional range of confessional songwriting.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MODIGLIANI")
LUCY DACUS: (Singing) Loving father, friend and son. Print it backwards on my shoulder blade from leaning back on a plaque on a bench. I carry David's name until it fades. Why does it feel significant? Why do I have to tell you about it?
KEN TUCKER, BYLINE: Why does it feel significant? Why do I have to tell you about it? In two short sentences, Lucy Dacus summarizes decades of motivation behind singer-songwriter pop music. It's that mixture of confession and melody that creates an illusion of intimacy, the feeling that we really know the artist. Indeed, feeling is what Dacus' new album is all about. It could not be more feely. It's called "Forever Is A Feeling," and I'm happy to say that her general mood is romantic and optimistic. On the song "Best Guess," she sings her affection to a close friend who's become a lover.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BEST GUESS")
DACUS: (Singing) After all, it's a small world. You may not be an angel, but you are my girl. You are my pack a day. You are my favorite place. You were my best friend before you were my best guess at the future. You are my best guess. If I were a gambling man, and I am, you'd be my best bet. You are my best guess.
TUCKER: Dacus' small, intimate voice is tailor-made to be heard whispering in the ears of fans glued to the small screens of their phones. Even her proclamations of passion are subtle and modest. A song called "Ankles" reaches back to a time when a woman showing a bit of her ankle was considered daringly erotic. Dacus takes pleasure in transporting this feeling to a contemporary context.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ANKLES")
DACUS: (Singing) Agent of chaos, angel of death, one of three ancient fates playing with your scissors again. How lucky are we to have so much to lose? Now don't move when I tell you what to do. Pull me by the ankles to the edge of the bed and take me like you do in your dreams. I'm not going to stop you. I'm not going to stop you this time, baby. I want you to show me what you mean, then help me with the crossword in the morning. You are going to make me tea, going to ask me how did I sleep.
TUCKER: Lucy Dacus and Jeffrey Lewis both compose acoustic-based singer-songwriter music in which the first-person singular is deployed to announce emotions and opinions, but they could not be more different. For 20 years now, Lewis has been eloquent, crass, romantic and realistic, frequently all in the same song. When he writes a confessional lyric, he exposes more than a well-turned ankle, not bothering with artful metaphors.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "JUST FUN")
JEFFREY LEWIS: (Singing) Try to see your parents more 'cause they're so weak and old now. But they just can't let you live without always being told how. And spend time with your child. Be responsible and silent. But you lose it, then you know that you're a monster and a tyrant. It's family, so you call because you're too grown up to fume. But somehow you've hung up and thrown the phone across the room. 'Cause you're a weakling and a loser. You just never get it right, down from the way that you were raised to how your own home is tonight. These are the ones you love the best, so why's it always such a mess? And what the hell's it for since you're rotten to the core? Well, it's fun. It's just fun.
TUCKER: Lewis' new album is called "The Even More Free Wheelin' Jeffrey Lewis," the title and cover photo a nod to Bob Dylan's early New York City folky days. A dedicated New Yorker himself, Lewis gets louder and more low down on this album's centerpiece, a great song about just how painful daily existence can be called "Sometimes Life Hits You."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SOMETIMES LIFE HITS YOU")
LEWIS: (Singing) Might have a nice life with coffee and friends you can call. Could have a Shakespeare collection and might have read them all. Could have family that made you nicer than some folks had. Could have a family that you made. That isn't so bad. Well, you can build up your armor against what life brings. You can dodge when life kicks, and you can duck when life swings. You can outsmart all sadness and outfight with best. But sometimes life hits you like a chisel to the chest. Then you say, ow, that hurt. Ow, that hurt. Ow, that hurt. There'll be something sometime...
TUCKER: This is the musical equivalent of hitting your thumb with a hammer. And on the less radio-friendly version of that song, Lewis inserts a pungent four-letter curse between the words ow and that hurt. Lucy Dacus makes clear that she, too, has experienced moments when, in Jeffrey Lewis' phrase, life hits you like a chisel to the chest.
Both of these artists have their flaws. Lewis is sometimes too yammeringly self-absorbed. Dacus is sometimes too much of a monotone mumbler. Each can flatten music that ought to sound more airy and buoyant. But their best songs answer Dacus' question that began this review - why do I have to tell you about it? For both Dacus and Lewis, the answer is because it feels good to unburden yourself and maybe lift a burden or confirm a feeling for your listeners, as well.
MOSLEY: Ken Tucker reviewed new music from Lucy Dacus and Jeffrey Lewis.
Tomorrow on FRESH AIR, Immigration and Customs Enforcement is in force, and students are in the crosshairs at college campuses nationwide, from Columbia to the University of Alabama. Legal scholar Daniel Kanstroom joins us to unpack the law, the history and the human cost. I hope you can join us.
To keep up with what's on the show and get highlights of our interviews, follow us on Instagram - @nprfreshair. FRESH AIR's executive producer is Danny Miller. Our technical director and engineer is Audrey Bentham. Our managing producer is Sam Briger. Our interviews and reviews are produced and edited by Phyllis Myers, Ann Marie Baldonado, Lauren Krenzel, Therese Madden, Monique Nazareth, Thea Chaloner, Susan Nyakundi and Anna Bauman. Our digital media producer is Molly Seavy-Nesper. Roberta Shorrock directs the show. With Terry Gross, I'm Tonya Mosley.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SOMETIMES LIFE HITS YOU")
LEWIS: (Singing) Ah, you think anyone who ever lived got through and enjoyed it? Oh, but somehow you - yeah, right - you're going to avoid it? Well you can file home insurance against fire and theft. And you can zig to the right, and you can zag to the left. No bad health, bad breakups, or bad love or death, but life will hit you someday somehow like a chainsaw to the chest, and you'll say... Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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