Lucius Dances Away the Sadness With ‘Next to Normal’ on ‘Ellen’

Lucius stopped by The Ellen Show to perform their song, “Next to Normal.” Appearing with matching keytars and donning sparkly dresses, the duo showcased the upbeat, pop-tinged number complete with matching choreography.

“Next to Normal” appears on the Brooklyn-based indie outfit’s most recent album, Second Nature, out now via Mom + Pop Music. The album was produced by Dave Cobb and Brandi Carlile, and recorded primarily at Nashville’s RCA Studio A. It marks the band’s third full-length album and first since 2016’s Good Grief.

“It is a record that begs you not to sit in the difficult moments, but to dance through them,” singer Jess Wolfe explained. “It touches upon all these stages of grief — and some of that is breakthrough, by the way. Being able to have the full spectrum of the experience that we have had, or that I’ve had in my divorce, or that we had in lockdown, having our careers come to a halt, so to speak. I think you can really hear and feel the spectrum of emotion and hopefully find the joy in the darkness. It does exist. That’s why we made Second Nature and why we wanted it to sound the way it did: our focus was on dancing our way through the darkness.”

Lucius will embark on an extensive North American headline tour later this month followed by a series of European shows in September, with stops at New York’s Beacon Theatre and Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium. The band will also join Carlile for several concerts this summer, including shows at Washington’s Gorge Amphitheatre, Los Angeles’ Greek Theatre, and Colorado’s Red Rock Amphitheatre.