i do not regret listening to "The Secret of Us"!

I was one of the lucky few who got to see Gracie Abrams live at Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour. Now I get to listen to her second album, The Secret of Us, having been a fan since her first EP, minor.

“I’ll have a drink, wistfully lean out my window and watch the sun set on the lake” from “I Love You, I’m Sorry” sums up the newfound extroversion of this album, which Abrams described prior to the release. The title The Secret of Us is set up to resemble a book. This almost works, but the, well, album-ness of the album stops it from completely getting there.

 Abrams pictured on The Secret of Us album cover

What's a great album? Abrams proves she knows. She reminds listeners what a strong outro is.

“Blowing Smoke” has an instrumental setup like “I Should Hate You” (2023), with acoustics and an occasional gorgeous but ominous whistling noise. Harmonies explode at the final chorus end, “I know everything they don’t”. A high-tension outro of Abrams repeating “I know” ensues.

“I Love You, I’m Sorry” is a callback to Abrams’ first big hit, “I Miss You, I’m Sorry”. The tracks have similar endings, with the bridge playing a second time quietly over the final chorus. It represents the saying, “What is grief if not love persevering?”

“I Knew It, I Know You”, a favorite of mine about mentally revisiting someone you ended things with out of unrequited anger, is the best fully acoustic guitar song on the album. Abrams ends the heart-wrenching bridge with, “We could both calm down”, and repeats “down” throughout the calmer final verse. She punches your empathy at the end with the repeated, “You really thought you would get what you wanted”.

“Free Now”, another favorite, was described by Abrams as a track she desperately needed to write. The perfect buildup of the song is through rhyming in brief circuits and a huge guitar buildup to the bridge that makes the outro heavenly.

Abrams pictured on Instagram with Audrey Hobert (co-writer), Aaron Dessner (producer), and Bella Blasko (recording engineer)

Then, Abrams has her general strong points.

“Normal Thing” utilizes Abrams’ old whisper-singing and soft lyrical style. The mystical synths allow this writing to transport the listener into a dream.

“Close To You” was one of Abrams’ most highly anticipated songs yet. She posted a clip online several years ago. Reminiscent of Taylor Swift’s 1989 (2014) sound, people remembered it. The pre-release single drop undoubtedly gave the album a boost.

Abrams pictured for the Risk / Close To You 7" Vinyl

This album doesn’t have weak points, but there are spots that it had more potential for than it received. Some tracks have a little too much obvious outside inspiration.

“us. (feat. Taylor Swift)” doesn’t feel like a Gracie Abrams song. Hard to criticize that – who wouldn’t want a Taylor Swift song on their album? But lines like, “What seemed like fate becomes, ‘What the hell was I doing?’/Babylon lovers hanging lifetimes on a vine” and “That night you were talking false prophets and profits they make in the margins of poetry sonnets” are screaming Swift’s name. The bridge doesn’t sound like something Abrams would write, even though the artists posted a video writing it together. It’s a great song, but not here.

I love “Let It Happen”, but it also has this issue. Listen to the chorus of Swift’s “Invisible” (2006), then listen to this chorus. Once again, the Abrams’ track screams Swift. The bridge has the same issue but to a lesser extent. Nonetheless, lyrics like “Turn me into something tragic/just for you, I’ll let it happen” are raw and gorgeous.

The last song that sounds like a Swift song is “Tough Love”, which even my dad (who never voluntarily listens to Swift) pointed out. Moreover, it’s an overly experimental song for an already experimental album in other ways. The verses are fast for an Abrams song, and the way the lyric, “This train is full of strangers but I might like ‘em more/said I might like ‘em more/yeah, no, I like ‘em more” is written feels inauthentic.

The YouTube thumbnail for Abrams' Jimmy Kimmel Live performance of "Let It Happen"

Other songs feel incomplete or otherwise aren’t super interesting even when complete.

I like the opening track, “Felt Good About You”, but it could only be an opener. Abrams sings “Felt good about you till I didn’t” repeatedly until it’s boring.

“Risk” is a great example of a song that's better off staying yearned for by fans. The acoustic version of “Risk”, played on tour and posted online, is almost exactly like the album version. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as shown by “I Knew It, I Know You” having the same deal, but I think “Risk” had more production potential.

“Gave You I Gave You I” is a favorite of mine; the production, melody, and most lyrics hit. But songwriters are taught early on that a hook should answer the question of a song, and the hook, “You got bored and I felt used, now I’m all sad about it” feels (in a bad way) like Abrams wrote everything except that answer and then looked through the other lyrics to figure it out. It makes the song feel weirdly ambiguous for something with such a clear conclusion.

“Good Luck Charlie” will be amazing as the album’s nostalgia builds. Its slow pace simply brings it down. A gorgeous scene is painted in the second verse, “Now, when you fly over Michigan, I’ll bet you see her/right on the wing of the plane, in the lakes, in the sky”, but it’s hard for the image to linger for nearly four minutes.

Abrams pictured for the Target Exclusive Vinyl of The Secret of Us

Despite how my recent way of structuring my reviews makes it sound like I haven’t loved recent albums, I can assure you I do. Despite having slightly inauthentic or incomplete moments, the newly extroverted energy of The Secret of Us makes it my favorite Abrams record yet (out of two EPs and two LPs.) I’m psyched to see her on tour this September, and I would highly advise hopping on the Abrams bandwagon.

The Secret of Us is out now on all streaming platforms.

Other lyrics I love but didn't mention:

"Heard the risk is drowning, but I'm gonna take it"

"You look stupid going out/if she's got a pulse, she meets your standards now"

"You mean well but aim low/and I'll make it known like I'm getting paid"

"Trust me, I know it's always about me/I love you, I'm sorry"

"I might not feel real, but it's okay"

"Lay on the horn to prove that it haunts me"

"I might barely know you, but still/don't love you yet but probably will"

"No chance I waste my twenties on random men/not one of them is cooler than all my friends"

"I'm not gonna miss denying that I've got my own damn reasons"

"I understand, I changed your plans, I had to, baby/and all I did was right by me/I heard that it almost killed you/well, I knew it/I know you, I called it"

"You changed my life but I guess I'll see you"

"You should be mine for life, I'll be signing every dotted line"