Songfacts®:

• "Ankles" is a song about desire and self-control, that peculiar tightrope walk we humans perform when our hearts and brains are at loggerheads. It's also that maddening game of "do we, don't we?" that comes with mutual attraction. The kind of feeling where you're both in on the joke, but no one quite knows how it ends.
• Lucy Dacus begins the track sensibly enough, suggesting to her love interest that they keep things purely platonic for now. She wants to talk it through first, map out the emotional terrain before taking a single step. But by the time the chorus rolls around, all that caution is tossed aside. The invitation is clear:
  
  Pull me by the ankles to the edge of the bed
  And take me like you do in your dreams
  I'm not gonna stop you
  
  Ah, self-control - a lovely theory, really, until passion crashes through the door like an uninvited dinner guest. Suddenly, talking isn't enough, dreaming isn't enough, and interruptions are the furthest thing from Dacus' mind.
• In an interview with Dazed, Dacus described the song as "all about wanting something you can't have, particularly someone you can't have, and trying to figure out how to let off that steam so that it doesn't explode and blow up your life."
  
  She also admitted it's "much more sexy than I usually go for, but it's a fun little bop."
• Dacus, who is bisexual, keeps the lyrics gender-neutral, letting listeners fill in the blanks for themselves with universal placeholders like "baby" and "you." It makes the song feel both personal and utterly relatable - a choose-your-own-adventure for the romantically conflicted.
• Dacus wrote "Ankles" solo and co-produced it with Blake Mills, whose résumé includes Alabama Shakes, Fiona Apple and Laura Marling. Originally a ballad, it morphed into a baroque pop gem with swirling strings, a frisky bassline, and just enough electronic flourishes to keep it modern.
• In the music video, Dacus, who has broken free of a painting (as one does), wanders round Paris with a security guard played by actress Havana Rose Liu. Dacus, clad in a custom Rodarte red dress complete with a corset and three petticoats, fainted on the second day of shooting thanks to her overzealous wardrobe. Beauty, as they say, is pain - or at least mild heat exhaustion.
• Dacus performed "Ankles" for the first time on January 16, 2025, on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. She wore the same custom Rodarte red dress she did in the video, but this time completed the song without fainting.
• "Ankles" isn't Dacus's first foray into anatomically inspired songwriting. There's another single, 2021's "Thumbs," and "Body to Flame" from her 2018 album Historian. These songs demonstrate a recurring theme in Dacus's songwriting, where she uses body parts or related terms as metaphors or focal points in her lyrics.
• The song is the lead single for Dacus' fourth album, Forever Is A Feeling. The album delves deeply into various aspects of romantic love, with "Ankles" setting the tone.
• Lucy Dacus played "Ankles" live for the first time during her gig at St. Ann & The Holy Trinity Church in Brooklyn on February 18, 2025.
• Lucy Dacus tries to live and create in a way that, on her deathbed, she'll feel no regret. That standard guides every decision about what she releases. Even when she feels hesitant - especially about more vulnerable songs like "Ankles" - she accepts that choosing to share means letting go of fear.