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Lucy Dacus, 'VBS'

As a child, tween or teen, you want to feel like you belong. Lucy Dacus' "VBS" explores this feeling in a particular place —Vacation Bible School, a brand of Christian church camp for kids. Dacus sings about some specific experiences of kids and teens who go to these camps: being told that you're a leader at an impressionable age, snorting nutmeg to try to get high and the feeling of wanting someone to believe in something greater as much as you do.

Along with these experiences, though, are the push and pull of the environments she describes. She intertwines their difficult sides with the sweeter, glossier parts ("Sedentary secrets like peach pits in your gut / Locked away like jam jars in the cellar of your heart"), mimicking the concurrent teenage feelings of togetherness and otherness.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Sofie Hernandez-Simeonidis is a production assistant on the NPR Music team.