This is an album review I wrote as a Copy Editor for the State Hornet, reviewing Gracie Abrams’ The Secret of Us (Deluxe), released in October 2024. I loved getting to experiment with writing in a media critique lens through album reviews. This article also gave me the chance to showcase my graphic design capabilities, as I used Canva to generate the lead graphic on the article and the images for the social media post.
The cover art for the deluxe edition of Gracie Abrams’ album, “The Secret of Us,” released Oct. 18, 2024. The album is the 25-year-old’s second studio album and has earned massive sales and critical recognition. (Photo by Abby Waisler courtesy of Interscope Records, graphic created in Canva by Jocelyn Hill)
The deluxe edition of Gracie Abrams’ second album “The Secret of Us” was released Oct. 18, featuring four additional songs and three live versions of songs from the original release.
The added tracks introduce a layer of emotional depth to the storied tryst Abrams depicted on the original release, while the live renditions demonstrate Abrams’ proficiency set to a rousing band of live strings and percussion.
The first additional song, “Cool,” continues the motif of self deprecation from tracks like “Felt Good About You” and “Blowing Smoke,” with lines like “I’m a fool if the shoe fits.”
Abrams regrets acting against her better judgment to earn the affections of a paramour who had a pattern of hurting other women – an experience all too relatable to young women in the modern dating world.
Her narrative lyricism continues through the tracks “That’s So True” and “I Told You Things,” which paint a picture of navigating jealousy and heartbreak in dating.
Abrams’ storyteller songwriting draws comparisons to Taylor Swift, whom Abrams opened for on “The Eras Tour” in 2023 and 2024. Swift was featured on the track “us.” in the original album, providing backup vocals to Abrams’ ballad about a secret romance.
Gracie Abrams joins Taylor Swift onstage at “The Eras Tour,” playing a surprise rendition of “us.” June 23, 2024. Abrams has opened for multiple shows on Swift’s worldwide tour in 2023 and 2024, but the song is the pair’s first official collaboration. (Courtesy of Getty Images) (Gareth Cattermole)
“Packing It Up” bookends the studio album with an elegy to past heartbreak and the thrilling uncertainty of a new love interest. The song describes Abrams opening herself up to the possibility of romance after nearly giving up on love.
The added tracks complete the storyline of Abrams’ rumored romance with Irish actor Paul Mescal. Allegations about the pair surfaced in June with the album’s initial release, with many suspecting tracks like “us.” and “Risk” to be about Mescal.
While Abrams’ songwriting and vocal abilities remain strong throughout the original and deluxe tracks, the instrumentation feels repetitive and underwhelming. Producer Aaron Dessner, known for collaborating with artists like Swift and Bon Iver, is credited as a co-producer with Abrams and as a songwriter for most studio tracks.
Dessner’s signature folksy production excels on stripped-down tracks like “Risk” and “I Love You, I’m Sorry” but rings hollow for tracks like “Gave You I Gave You I,” which builds to an underwhelming bridge. The instrumentals provided by the live band on the three live recordings show a stark contrast from the musicality of the studio versions.
The album is underpinned by a bitterness that Abrams expresses towards the other women involved with the men she pines for. Abrams acknowledges the immaturity of her jealousy in “That’s So True” with the line, “wait, I think I hate her, I’m not that evolved.”
Regardless, tracks like “Tough Love” that extol the virtues of friendship feel tactless in contrast with the misogynistic lens through which Abrams describes women she sees as romantic competition.
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Although the additional studio tracks on the deluxe album’s release expand the tale of the original album, none of the four new songs hold the same allure as previous singles like “Close To You” or “I Love You, I’m Sorry.”
The live recordings of “I Love You, I’m Sorry,” “I Knew It, I Know You” and “Free Now” demonstrate Abrams’ vocal strength and how much clearer she sounds over a full instrumentation. The simple guitar and synth used to construct the melody of most studio tracks is repetitive and unsatisfying, compared to the full-bodied cello sound from the live “I Knew It, I Know You.”
Only two albums into her career, Abrams has established herself as a vivid storyteller whose songwriting echoes the strengths of her mentor, Swift. With greater variation in instrumentation and production, her music can transcend the soft pop genre she currently resides in.
