Honesty Is Like A Kiss On The Lips

Lucy Dacus “Direct Address”

Lucy Dacus keeps singing “I don’t believe in love at first sight” in this song, but every other line suggests otherwise, as she describes feeling totally paralyzed with lust for these men she sees in passing. Now, of course, that’s not real love, per se. But it is exactly what “love at first sight is;” the feeling of sudden intense infatuation with someone you see and feel very strongly that you need. “Direct Address” describes this feeling so well, examining the odd dynamic of filling in as many details about a person as you can from inference, and never acting on the attraction but holding on to the memory for years because the feeling was more eventful than most actual events. Dacus’ performance is lodged somewhere between frustrated irritation and coy flirtation, and the pace of the song feels impatient and restless. She sounds like she’s trying to shake herself out of a bad habit, but in the end when she recalls a man she saw in an audience years ago, the details are rendered with so much affection that she makes a good case for these moments being actually quite meaningful and beautiful.

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