Over the past year, singer/songwriter Lucy Dacus has released a series of seasonal songs, both originals and covers, that will be collected for the 2019 EP, out this Friday, November 8th: a cover of Édith Piaf's “La Vie En Rose” for Valentine’s Day; “My Mother & I” for Mother’s Day; “Forever Half Mast” for Fourth of July; “Dancing In The Dark” for Bruce Springsteen’s birthday (a holiday to some!); Phil Collins' “In The Air Tonight” for Halloween; and most recently, the holiday classic, Wham!'s “Last Christmas.”
In an interview with KEXP Morning Show Producer and Sound & Vision contributor Owen Murphy, she talked about her approach to these songs:
KEXP: When you approach a cover in general, does each one tell you tell you personally how to approach it, how to attack it? Do you do prefer faithful? Do you like to twist things?
Lucy Dacus: I think it changes for covers. I feel like what you said more applies to my own music where I feel like the song dictates how we treat it with the sound, whereas for covers it's already been done and so anything can be done. You know, like the first impression has been made with the song and so you can change it or you can be faithful. Like, it feels like it's more flexible to do a cover than my own music because, in my head, there's one best way for a song that I've written. For example, we did "La Vie en Rose" earlier this year and it's like an uptempo version of the song because, I love that song, and it made me so excited as a kid, so we did this exciting version. But ["In the Air Tonight"] is so much fun as is and you can't really mess with the fill. I guess you could, but like the song wouldn't be... the song without the payoff!
Today, Dacus unveils the final song on the EP, the original track "Fool’s Gold", a gorgeous, melancholy ode to New Year's Eve. "You got life in a choke hold," she sings plaintively, "You say that it's all the same / a glittering fool's gold." Last month, we were lucky to be joined by Dacus in the KEXP Live Room where she played this web exclusive version of the track. Watch below:
2019 Tracklist
1. Fool’s Gold
2. La Vie En Rose
3. My Mother & I
4. Forever Half Mast
5. Dancing In The Dark
6. In The Air Tonight
7. Last Christmas
Dacus' version will appear on the EP 2019, out November 8th via Matador Records.
Hear her take on the eerie 1981 hit "In the Air Tonight."
The song follows "La Vie En Rose" for Dacus' 2019 holiday single project
