This year feels like one that has been full of new and easy-to-obsess over tunes. One artist that stands out for me is Gracie Abrams, releasing her album “The Secret of Us” in June, with a deluxe version released this October.
Abrams has taken the world by storm with her catchy, relatable and heartfelt sounds, and the deluxe release without a doubt illustrates this well.
The first set of songs pre-deluxe explore what Abrams is known best for: honesty, rawness and reality in her lyrics. While this has been a stylistic feature for Abrams album after album, it feels like the intensity of her message has grown significantly in “The Secret of Us.”
Her songs, “I Love You, I’m Sorry,” “us ft. Taylor Swift,” “Tough Love,” “Risk” and “Close to You” have seen the most media attention, with many fans screaming along to her lyrics in concert. There is a running joke amongst the fanbase that many of her concerts are “the audience featuring Gracie Abrams.” Those who attend often exemplify their love and support through emphatic scream-singing.
The full list of deluxe songs includes: “Cool,” “That’s So True,” “I Told You Things” and “Packing it Up”; along with three live versions: “I Love You, I’m Sorry,” “I Knew It, I Know You” and “Free Now,” all live from Vevo.
“Cool” is slower and smoother, blending into Abrams’ voice to invoke anger and sadness. This song resembles sounds in her previous projects, which gives many of her long-running fans glimpses of an artist they’ve known and loved for forever. Exploring this old version of herself while bringing in her newly appreciated style is what makes Abrams so evolved as an artist.
“That’s So True” brings in rhythm, heavy lyricism and upbeat energy, which is very prominent in this album. Abrams first sang this song at one of her concerts alongside her good friend and co-writer of the album, Audrey Hobert. The song is addictive in its structure and easy to listen to over and over. It wasn’t long before Abrams’ fans had the lyrics memorized prior to the song even being released. The chorus alone is incredibly catchy and admirable in its lively and rhythmic qualities.
“I Told You Things” and “Free Now” have bridges that feel very “Taylor Swift coded.” Abrams, along with several other artists, has admitted that much of her lyrical inspiration has been taken from Swift, who she features on this album.
The final line repeats several times, and we can see how Abrams uses the word pain to evoke her feelings and the overall message of the song. Abrams uses rhyme and repetition throughout to build the intensity of both songs’ bridges.
There is always something special about artists releasing live versions of their songs. In Abrams’ case, her entire tour was sold out in minutes. Making these songs available to fans gave those who couldn’t get tickets a piece of the concert.
Abrams has incredible intentionality in her live renditions.
In “I Love You, I’m Sorry,” she made a note change just at the end of the bridge with the lyrics: “To prove that it haunts me / I love you, I’m sorry.” This one-note change absolutely blew up the internet, with many people posting about how earth-shattering it was for them to listen to it for the first time. Others created covers of the song including the new note change. Due to the positive influence it left on the media, Abrams released the note change with a live and recorded version for all of her fans to enjoy.
I rate this album, including the deluxe, four out of five Loper Stars. Abrams’ music has been astounding on the music industry, and much of it has been due to her own inspirations. It’s incredible to see how she is inspiring young artists and fans today.
