Indie singer-songwriter Lucy Dacus has released another incisive song from her third studio album, Home Video. “Brando” has the sound and scorch of a Highway 61-era Dylan. Instead of Dylan’s “Thin Man” leafing through F. Scott Fitzgerald, Dacus’s muse subscribes to the Criterion Collection. Over a dulcet, indie-folk arrangement, she turns his film references against him. “I’m laughing ’cause you think you’re Brando but you’ll never come close,” she sneers.
“‘Brando’ refers to a very dramatic friend I had in high school whose whole personality was the media he consumed,” Dacus said in a statement. “He showed me a lot of amazing movies and music, but I think he was more interested in using me as a scrapbook of his own tastes than actually getting to know me. He claimed to know me better than anyone else but I started to feel like all he wanted from me was to be a scene partner in the movie of his life.”
The Richmond, Virginia native broke out with her acclaimed 2016 debut, No Burden. In 2018, she co-founded Boygenius with fellow acclaimed singer-songwriters, Phoebe Bridgers and Julien Baker.
For a chance to be in the official music video for “Brando,” Dacus is asking for fans to send a video of themselves “dancing (or skateboarding, ice skating, roller-blading, etc.)” to https://lucydacus.com/brando. More details are available via the link.
Home Video arrives on June 25th via Matador. Preorder the album on Dacus’ website.