Lucy Dacus – “VBS”
Lucy Dacus is releasing her third album, Home Video, in just a little over a month. We’ve heard two songs from it already, “Thumbs” and “Hot & Heavy” and today we’re getting a third, “VBS,” which stands for “vacation bible school.” It recounts Dacus’ experiences with the church, filled with preachers trying to be too relatable and kids who can’t figure it if they’re taking religion too seriously or not seriously enough. She meets a boy whose “poetry was so bad, it took a lot to not laugh.” “You said that I showed you the light, but all it did in the end was make the dark feel darker than before,” she sings on the hook. There’s a great bit where Dacus mentions Slayer and then the song launches into some guitar histrionics.
“VBS means vacation bible school, and I went to tons of them. It’s where Christian parents send their kids over the winter, spring, or summer breaks from school to get closer to God, maybe learn some outdoor skills, and bring home useless crafts and totems like fruit of the spirit sand art and purity rings,” Dacus said in a statement, continuing:
I wrote the song in the van on the way to Nashville to record Home Video after seeing one of those readerboards outside a church advertising a wholesome church camp for kids. I thought about my first boyfriend, who I met at VBS, the resident bad boy who loved Slayer and weed more than Jesus. I took it upon myself to save him, and make him stop doing drugs (with an exception for snorting nutmeg). God, I was so lame.
Watch a video directed by Marin Leong below.
Home Video is out 6/25 via Matador.