The first song Lucy Dacus learned on guitar
One of the pioneers of the modern sad girl indie movement, few contemporary artists rival Lucy Dacus when it comes to melancholic guitar music. From the devastating honesty of her indie-rock debut, No Burden, in 2016, to her most recent release earlier this year with sad girl supergroup Boygenius, Dacus has become a staple in the playlists of sad girls worldwide.
Dacus’ guitar sound flits between soft, melancholic indie folk and heavier indie rock moments while she sings of nerves and nostalgia, love and loss, and the trials and tribulations of being a young woman. Though her lyrics and sound are rooted in contemporary anxieties, Dacus’ early influences include Robert Smith’s pioneering gothic new wave group, The Cure.
Dacus’ love affair with The Cure is a lengthy one, which began when she first heard their 1987 single, ‘Just Like Heaven’. She recalled to The Line of Best Fit: “The first Cure song I ever heard was ‘Just Like Heaven’. My eighth-grade boyfriend told me it was our song”. Contrary to Smith’s gothic, eyeliner-laden look, the track is romantic and euphoric. It became the first song Dacus learned on guitar.
Her obsession with The Cure didn’t stop there, though. Dacus also recalls a fond memory attached to the claustrophobic, quirky ‘Close To Me’, The Cure’s second single ahead of the release of The Head on the Door in 1985. When Dacus was in high school, she recalls, she hijacked a bowling alley stage to perform the track.
Looking back on the memory, she explained: “For ‘Close To Me’ specifically, when I was in high school, I was at a show at a bowling alley, and me and my friend got up on stage in between sets – which is something that I would never do, and as a kid I didn’t realise how weird that was – but we got up there in between two of the bands and nobody knew that we weren’t on the bill. We set up as if we were there on the bill and played that song, people just let it happen and were really confused!”
Since then, she recalls: “I’ve danced to ‘Close To Me’ so many times in my life”.
Her admiration for the track seems to stem from its distinction from the rest of their discography, as she explains, “For a band that are iconic for their sadness, it’s one of the weirder, fun ones and I think it stands out.”
Dacus concludes: “I feel that to lean that far into your heart as a writer… he verges on saccharine with some of the lyrics he writes, but it fits the mood so thoroughly. Whenever I want to listen to my feelings The Cure is there with the corresponding song. They found a balance for sadness and that’s a big feat for a band.”
It’s a lyrical technique Dacus herself seems to have mastered, too. Ever since she first picked up a guitar to learn ‘Just Like Heaven’, Dacus has honed her own characteristic, witty sadness paired with dreamy guitar instrumentals.
