Music Review: An uninhibited Gracie Abrams finds energy in the chaos on ‘The Secret of Us’

Singer-songwriter Gracie Abrams succumbs to a crush on “Danger,” the lead single of her frantic and melancholic sophomore album, “The Secret of Us.”

“Heard the danger is drowning / However I’m gonna take it,” she sings atop quick acoustic guitar, her vocals rising extra frenetic because the manufacturing thickens. “Watch this be the flawed factor,” she exclaims within the refrain.

The observe reveals an advanced, however acquainted, Abrams. The 24-year-old singer-songwriter has allow us to into her diary earlier than, however “The Secret of Us” is extra intimate and fewer reserved than her earlier work. This time, her songs aren’t recollections of waning heartbreak, lengthy held insecurity or lingering guilt. They’re occurring in actual time, creating and dissipating on report.

That immersion is achieved by means of the album’s manufacturing, a collaboration between Abrams, her longtime collaborator Aaron Dessner and co-writer Audrey Hobert, with cameos from Taylor Swift and producer Jack Antonoff.

The good “Blowing Smoke” units a biting critique of a misplaced flame to acoustic guitar and hums which are traded for electrical devices and shouts, as Abrams’ quips lean into frustration.

She belts on “Let it Occur,” the place “Robust Love” begins with whispers on a prepare to Boston and ends with a euphoric drum beat and declaration of self-love: “I do know now what I’m leaving for.”

Bonus observe “Near You,” produced by Sam de Jong and reworked after a clip of it went viral, lives extra within the magnetic world of Lorde and Ellie Goulding’s 2010s hits than it does in Abrams’ personal — however showcases a pop persona that peeks by means of on “The Secret of Us.”

The pressing melodies and breathless bridges on this assured album are progressed from Abrams’ previous work — when her writerly, soft-sung, “unhappy woman” pop music was rather more wistful and anxious.

The tracks that exemplify her new character most clearly — “Danger,” “Blowing Smoke,” “us. (feat. Taylor Swift)” — are the album’s most fascinating. It’s a shift that Abrams has linked to the interval of development between her final mission and this one. That yr and a half included a Grammy nomination and intensive touring on her personal and opening for Swift.

The album’s glowing centerpiece is “us. (feat. Taylor Swift).” Their voices weave collectively, harmonizing the album’s title atop a dreamy acoustic observe produced by the duo, Dessner and Antonoff: “I felt it, you held it, do you miss us, us? / Surprise for those who remorse the key of us,” they sing, with Abrams main.

The function from Swift appears like a stamp of approval for Abrams. And whereas references to annotated sonnets and Robert Bly might place this observe inside Swift’s “The Tortured Poets Division,” it’s recognizably Abrams in its youthful and considerate angst — in addition to these personal reflections on unrequited love.

“The Secret of Us,” paints an image of an artist in movement, one who’s discovering what excites her creatively as she navigates younger maturity. And by taking listeners alongside for that trip — the frustrations, vanities, chaotic crushes and all — she opens an thrilling door for her future as an assured and energetic performer.

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