• News

• All

Nov 01, 2019 By Christopher Roberts Photography by Elizabeth Weinberg Lucy Dacus

This year Lucy Dacus has been working on a singles series entitled 2019 where she has been releasing seven songs in 2019, each timed to a different holiday. Now she has shared a cover of Wham!‘s 1984 holiday classic “Last Christmas.” Her version is faster and punkier, because she doesn’t like Christmas apparently. All the songs will be collected on the 2019 EP, which is due out next Friday (November 8) via Matador, and includes one more song, “Fools Gold,” alas not a Stone Roses cover but an original song about New Year’s. Listen to the “Last Christmas” cover below followed by Wham!‘s video for the original.

Dacus had this to say about the cover in a press release: “I don’t really like Christmas. In the studio, we listened to the original of ‘Last Christmas’ and didn’t talk about an arrangement. I just told everyone to play it angry. This is what happened first take. It actually came out pretty fun, maybe a tad psychotic.”

Pick up our new print issue (the My Favorite Album Issue) to read our exclusive interview with Lucy Dacus about her all-time favorite album.

The first offering of 2019 was a cover of Edith Piaf’s “La Vie En Rose,” timed to Valentine’s Day. Dacus’ take was a mix of French and English lyrics. Then she shared its second installment, “My Mother & I,” which was fittingly timed to Mother’s Day and Taurus season and was one of our Songs of the Week. Then she shared its third installment, “Forever Half Mast,” timed to July 4th (it also made our Songs of the Week list). Then she shared a cover of Bruce Springsteen’s “Dancing in the Dark” in honor of his birthday (he turned 70 on September 23). Then she shared a cover of Phil Collins’ 1981 classic “In the Air Tonight” timed to Halloween.

Dacus had this to say about the project in a previous press release: “These songs are self-contained, not indicative of a new direction, just a willingness to do something different and sometimes even out of character.”

Dacus released a new album, Historian, back in March 2018 via Matador. It was our Album of the Week and one of our Top 100 Albums of 2018.

Dacus also teamed up with fellow singer/songwriters Julien Baker and Phoebe Bridgers to form supergroup Boygenius, whose self-titled debut EP was released in late October via Matador.

Read our interview with Dacus and boygenius.

Read our 2018 interview with Dacus on Historian.

Read our 2016 Artist Survey interview with Lucy Dacus.

Lucy Dacus Tour Dates:

Fri November 1 - Englewood, CO @ Gothic Theatre
Mon November 4 - St Louis, MO @ Delmar Hall
Tues November 5 - Cincinnati, OH @ Woodward Theatre
Wed November 6 - Grand Rapids, MI @ Covenant Fine Arts Center
Sun November 17 - Mexico City, MEX @ Festival Corona Capital
Sat November 30 - Charlottesville, VA @ Jefferson Theater
Wed December 4 - Boston, MA @ Royale
Thurs December 5 - New York, NY @ Webster Hall
Sat December 7 - Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club
Sun December 29 - Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brenda’s
Mon December 30 - Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brenda’s
Tue December 31 - Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brenda’s
Fri January 17 - Sun January 19 - South Walton, FL @ 30A Songwriters Festival
Thu March 5 - Sun March 8 - Okeechobee, FL @ Okeechobee Music & Arts Festival
Fri March 6 - Nashville TN @ Ryman Auditorium

Support Under the Radar on Patreon.