Gracie Abrams

he Secret of Us by Gracie Abrams

The second album by Gracie Abrams, The Secret of Us, captures all the intensity of entrusting one’s heart to closest friends at the end of a tumultuous night. “Most of these songs stem from my experiences at 24, with all the ups and downs of unrequited love and new relationships (or the lack thereof),” explains the Los Angeles singer-songwriter. “There was such a fun aspect to explore in this drama and sometimes to poke fun at, even in the face of total disappointment.” Co-produced by Abrams and her longtime collaborator Aaron Dessner of The National, The Secret of Us ultimately brings a bold new vitality to her writing and invites listeners to fully embrace their own most tumultuous emotions.

Created shortly after Abrams opened for Taylor Swift's successful Eras Tour in stadiums across the country, The Secret of Us marks the first time she has actively engaged in the production process— a natural evolution for an independent-minded artist who began recording songs in her teenage bedroom. While the album builds on the refined lyricism of her debut LP Good Riddance (released in 2023 and praised by Rolling Stone for showcasing a serious mastery of autobiographical writing), each song stands out with a powerful yet playful energy, largely thanks to her production choices, including numerous punchy guitar parts and intricate vocal overlays with the help of her longtime friend Audrey Hobert. “Making this album was fun in a way I hadn’t felt since I was really young,” says Abrams, who enlisted Hobert and Dessner as her only co-writers on The Secret of Us. “I think it has a lot to do with writing so many songs with my best friend and making sure to faithfully reflect this moment in our lives.”

Recorded primarily at Long Pond Studio (Dessner's studio in the Hudson Valley, where he also produced Taylor Swift's Grammy-winning album folklore), The Secret of Us began to take shape with the writing of “Risk”: a bubbly yet incisive track that perfectly captures the album's spirit of reckless exuberance (in the chorus: “God, I’m diving into the deep end/It’s more fun to swim/I’ve been told the risk is drowning/But I’ll take it”). “I remember feeling so energized when Audrey and I wrote ‘Risk’,” recalls Abrams. “It was this magical mix of self-awareness and a slight illusion, which became a sort of cornerstone for the whole album. We also live together, so after that, we got into the habit of waking up and starting to work on songs just because it was so fun to write about our lives in real time.”

Although The Secret of Us retains the clean minimalism that Abrams adopted since her acclaimed project Minor, the songs on the album are imbued with a depth of sonic details perfectly suited to her shifting moods. Thus, “Blowing Smoke” meditates on the excitement and frustration of unfulfilled desire, laying its internal narrative against a backdrop of dreamy synths, dark bass, and mercurial guitars (featuring her own contributions on acoustic guitar and a frenetic, beautiful performance by Justin Vernon of Bon Iver). “I wrote ‘Blowing Smoke’ thinking about that particular mindset of unrequited love, and how the smallest things can propel you into extreme mindsets,” emphasizes Abrams.

In “Tough Love,” catchy rhythms and shifting textures meld with Abrams’ fast-paced yet deeply felt narrative (from the second verse: “I’m drunk with a boy’s sister I met / Through someone at college / She had a strange intellect / She loved to speak the truth and was tough but straightforward / All her little boyfriends were gone / She had that effect”). “I took a train from New York to Boston and felt what I always feel when heading to a familiar place, as if I was seeing every version of myself who has ever taken that train,” she says of the song’s origin. “I was asking myself questions like, ‘Where am I in my life right now, where am I going next?’ and it turned into a song about the honor of girl friendship and maybe also laughing at boys.” Meanwhile, in the highly anticipated “Close To You,” Abrams offers a catchy, dance-ready anthem that speaks to how obsession consumes us at a nearly cellular level. “After seven years of holding onto the demo for ‘Close To You,’ I finally felt it was time to rework it and include it on this album,” reveals Abrams. “I’m really grateful for the encouragement from everyone online who let me know they still wanted to hear this song after all this time— it makes me want to dance with them, and I can’t wait for us to do that.”

Though often exhilarating, The Secret of Us also explores themes like the pain of self-denial (in the pensive “Gave You I, Gave You I”) and suffering from major loss (in “I Love You, I’m Sorry,” featuring breathtaking string arrangements by Grammy-winning composer Rob Moose). “It’s about looking toward the future of a relationship that has ended, and feeling appreciation for that person’s ability to see me through my bad habits,” says Abrams about the latter. With its many memorable choruses and sing-along melodies, the album has been profoundly influenced by her role opening for Taylor Swift (who recently told Rolling Stone that “Gracie’s writing blends vulnerability and introspection in a way I really relate to”). “Seeing Taylor fill those huge spaces has expanded my imagination and pushed me to write lyrics that inspire people to sing along enthusiastically,” notes Abrams, who has also toured with Olivia Rodrigo, opened for Phoebe Bridgers, and sold out concerts in the U.S. and Europe.

Reflecting on the creation of The Secret of Us, Abrams notes that the experience provided a sensation akin to the romantic infatuation that inspired much of her writing. “The way I fell in love with the process had that same butterfly feeling as when you have a huge crush,” she says. “With Good Riddance, Aaron created a space for me to learn about myself and really trust my instincts, and on this album, it evolved into a way of working that is both fluid and so much fun. I’ve been searching for that kind of flow for so long, and now it’s the only way I can imagine working for the rest of my life.”

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