Extract from a Newsweek article
The album’s third track is a strange rumination on creative burnout (doubly so, since the record would appear to be the result of creative flourishing). Dacus sings:
You don’t want to be a creator / Doesn’t mean you’ve got nothing to say
She says:
The song’s about...
[Verse 1]
I'm a ghost walking in a boring dream
You are there talking and I'm not listening
I am busy doing nothing and you're rudely interrupting
It's a myth and now I see it clearly
You don't have to be sad to make something worth hearing
Now I'm common and content, one more burden off my back
[Chorus]
You don't wanna be a creator
Doesn't mean you've got nothing to say
Put down the pen, don't let it force your hand
[Verse 2]
I'm a ghost walking on an empty street
No name anymore, no need to call for me
I'm a long-lost hometown hero
Latent legendary past lives within me
If I had the offer to do it again
Make me invincible, invisible, or brain dead
If the body and the life were two things that we could divide
I'd deliver up my shell to be filled with somebody else
[Chorus]
You don't wanna be a creator
Doesn't mean you've got nothing to say
Put down the pen, don't let it force your hand
You don't wanna be a leader
Doesn't mean you don't know the way
Hold your own hand, walk on without a plan
The Shell was written by Lucy Dacus.
The Shell was produced by Lucy Dacus & Jacob Blizard & Collin Pastore.
Lucy Dacus released The Shell on Fri Mar 02 2018.