Over the past few years, “Thumbs” has become a fan-favorite Lucy Dacus song. She started playing it live in 2018 and fans quickly latched on to the then-unreleased track, so much so that a Twitter account devoted to the song popped up. Recently, Dacus started mailing fans VHS tapes featuring the song, and now, finally, “Thumbs” has officially been released.
Dacus says the smoldering, emotional, and understated song was written during a 15-minute car ride to dinner in Nashville and further explains:
“Like most songs I write, I wasn’t expecting it and it made me feel weird, almost sick. It tells the story of a day I had with a friend during our freshman year of college, a significant day, but not one that I had thought of for years. I started playing it live a month or so later during the Boygenius tour after Phoebe [Bridgers] and Julien [Baker] encouraged me to. I knew I wanted a long time to get used to playing it since it made me feel shaky, so I ended sets with it for about half the shows I played in 2019. Before I played it, I would ask the audience to please not record it, a request that seems to have been respected, which I’m grateful for.”
Listen to “Thumbs” above.