Within 20 minutes, Lucy Dacus got me to take another look at my obstinate stance against the concept of unconditional love.

If you know she’s a Taurus, you might think she’s all about conditions and caveats, yet during our conversation, she firmly tells me, “Unconditional love is a concept I’m still interested in. I feel like it can coexist with cutting somebody out — that act can be a loving thing to yourself and to the other person, as well. Unconditional love is not just about prolonging a relationship that carries a lot of pain.” I’ve always thought of it as a manipulative way to trap someone into putting up with your bad behavior, no matter what. But the way she puts it, the idea of unconditional love still has some elasticity.

At this point in our conversation, we are already semi off-topic. The original reason for our call is to chat about a song Dacus just released in honor of Mother's Day and Taurus season (the season in which we both happen to have been born), titled “My Mother and I,” which addresses how a person’s relationship with their mother can affect their body image. But since love is at the core of that subject, we let our minds wander.

My mother

hates her body.

We share the same outline.

She swears that she loves mine.

Many of Dacus’s songs are fairly ambiguous, at least when it comes to the person she’s singing about, but not this one — from the very title, the relationship at the core of the song is clear. She addresses this on the phone, saying, “This is the first song that I've put out where clearly there's a specific person that it's about.” However, the subject is still slightly more complicated than the average listener might be aware of. “I'm adopted," she continues, "so I have two mothers — a biological mother and the mother who raised me.” (Note that her adopted mother is the Taurus, but the mother concept she sings about in the song is an amalgamation of both.)

Regardless of the specific dynamics in her personal life, the song, which weaves in her experiences as an adoptee and growing up knowing her birth mother, is relatable to nearly anyone with a relationship to a primary caregiver and a body.