The Secret Of Gracie Abrams: Celebrating One Year Of ‘The Secret Of Us’

By Kayla Harper

 

Before she was headlining arenas worldwide and dominating the charts with hits like “That’s So True”, Gracie Abrams was playing small shows in garages, 1000 capacity venues and from her bedroom over zoom to a very niche group of people, who at the time would’ve had to explain who Gracie Abrams was to anyone who asked what show they were going to see.  Now she is a household name and her shows sell out in seconds.  Much of this success is credited to her time opening for Taylor Swift’s iconic Eras Tour.  However, it was her sophomore album, The Secret Of Us, released on June 21, 2024 that kept this momentum going, allowing her to achieve the success she now has a year later.

While The Secret Of Us is classic Abrams, it is also the most extroverted project we’ve seen from her, with higher energy songs compared to the rest of her discography.  Additionally, she takes her typical emotionally confrontational lyrics and turns the pettiness dial up in songs like “Cool”, “That’s So True”, “Blowing Smoke”, “Tough Love” etc.  A lot of these changes are the result of working with her close friend Audrey Hobert on most of the record, alongside frequent collaborator Aaron Dessner who worked on her debut album, Good Riddance and second EP, This Is What It Feels Like. 

Abrams met Hobert while in college pursuing international relations, but they hadn’t collaborated musically until The Secret Of Us.  Abrams and Hobert recall writing many of the songs in their shared apartment while having conversations about what was currently happening in their lives.  They wanted the songs to sound conversational and mimic these honest, raw moments.  While many of these songs are brand new, a lot of them have also been in the works for many years with a long twisted history.  Either way, each song has a story to tell and secrets to spill.

1. “Felt Good About You” 

The opening track “Felt Good About You”  approaches a relationship that turned bitter despite feeling promising in the beginning. It was first heard in 2021 when Abrams posted a snippet of the song, originally titled “Black and Blue”, online.  Posting original songs online was something Abrams used to do a lot, and still does periodically.  There’s hundreds of songs she’s written online that often make appearances on later projects as she revisits them. It was slower paced, piano led, but the same lyrics and melody.

 

2. “Risk”

“Risk” was the lead single from The Secret Of Us and was written with Hobert.  Abrams would come down everyday talking to Hobert about a guy she really liked and eventually these conversations turned into “Risk”.  Aside from posting unreleased songs online, Abrams has a tendency to also perform them at her live shows.  “Risk” was performed on the Good Riddance Tour in 2023 and obtained the title “Delusional” as Abrams announced before performing the song that it was delusional (in nature), not that it was called delusional, but fans kinda ran with it.

 

3. “Blowing Smoke” 

Despite its upbeat acoustic guitar-led tone,  “Blowing Smoke” is described by Abrams as a darker song on the record because it came from a place of anger.  She recalls her favourite part being the bridge and the background vocals in the outro of the song: “I know, I know, I know (Hey! Hey! Hey!)” which she and Hobert recorded drunk in the middle of the night in the kitchen at Dessner’s Long Pond Studio’s after he’d gone to bed.

 

4. “I Love You, I’m Sorry” 

There was a time when “I miss you, I’m sorry”, a single off of Abrams debut EP minor, was the most popular in her discography.  Four years later, Abrams teased a snippet of the sequel, “I Love You, I’m Sorry” online and fans’ anticipated its release.  “I Love You, I’m Sorry” became one of the most popular songs off of The Secret Of Us and one of Abrams’s first hits.  Abrams describes it as one of her favourite songs ever, especially that she’s written because it came from a very pure place filled with a lot of love for the person she wrote it about.

 

5. “Us.” 

When the tracklist for The Secret Of Us was initially revealed, “Us.” quickly became one of the most anticipated tracks because of the feature with Taylor swift.  Abrams and Swift wrote “Us.” in Swift’s apartment after talking about things going on in their lives over quite a few glasses of wine.  They recall staying up into the early hours of the morning writing the song together and almost burning down Swift’s apartment when they forgot about a candle that was burning.  “Us.” is an unexpected, but perfect collaboration between the two, with Swift providing mostly backup vocals which harmonize beautifully and compliment the track, making it sound fuller and even more magical.

 

6. “Let It Happen” 

Although a version of “Let It Happen” had been sitting in the back of Abrams’s mind for nearly six years, it took several laps running around Long Pond Studio for the proper lyrics to come to her.  Abrams posted a snippet of a song called “Tuesday” sometime in 2020 and played it during soundcheck once on the Good Riddance tour. “Tuesday” eventually became “Let It Happen” because Abrams loved the melody of “Tuesday”, but thought the lyrics were too depressing for where she wanted to go with it, which is why she altered the lyrics.

(although as an OG “Tuesday” lover, I really need this version released one day…I did lose my shit the first time I heard “Let It Happen” a year ago today and realized it was “Tuesday”).

 

7. “Tough Love” 

Abrams describes “Tough Love” as “a love letter to the girls”; a song about friendship and finding yourself after leaving a situation or place that no longer serves you.  At the end of the Good Riddance era, Abrams cut her hair short for the first time in many years making the first line of “Tough Love” truly iconic: “I took a train to Boston and I wanted to cry” as Abrams previously mentions Boston on her 2021 EP, This Is What It Feels Like, “Think that many I might go to Boston / cut my hair in the way that I’ve wanted” (“Augusta”, 2021), she went to Boston and she cut her hair.  “Tough Love” was another track Abrams teased online prior to the album being released.

 

8. “I Knew It, I Know It” 

“I Knew It, I Know You” was originally titled, “I knew it, I know you, I called it” and first played live during the Good Riddance era accompanied by Aaron Dessner.  With three very distinct sections that clearly establish the way this relationship changed overtime, “I Knew It, I Know You” was almost entirely written from a single stream of consciousness on the kitchen floor.  For the final outro portion, Hobert kept telling Abrams, “Just say the thing [how you feel]” and really Abrams was just shouting each line after the other and they naturally fell into place into what is heard on the final track.  Hobert also sings backup vocals on this one.

 

9. “Gave You I, Gave You I” 

“Gave You I, Gave You I” was also performed during the Good Riddance era, accompanied by Aaron Dessner and originally titled “Sad About It”.  Although Hobert and Abrams had already written many songs for the record, Abrams recalls “ Gave You I, Gave You I” being the first one she wrote with Aaron Dessner for The Secret Of Us.  Abrams explains that she wrote it the same night she flew into Long Pond and although it was very late, the song poured out of her very naturally.  It was interesting because the situation the song is about hadn’t even ended, in fact it was just beginning, but Abrams could already see the way it was turning out.

 

10. “Normal Thing” 

“Normal Thing” is about self-awareness in a sense, but also this idea of delusional false hope. It relates to Good Riddance’s “Where do we go now?” in the way that it hopes for something to rekindle in the future: “we could meet down the line, after all of the time” (“Where do we go now?”, 2023) and “don’t worry I know I’ll see you again, you’ll make my cry when it comes to an end” (“Normal Thing”, 2024).  Abrams explains “Normal Thing” is one of the saddest songs on the record for her, but she adores how the outro and overall production turned out.

 

11. “Good Luck Charlie” 

At the time of release, “Good Luck Charlie” was among Abrams top three songs on the record. When the tracklist was first revealed, some fans thought “Good Luck Charlie” was a reference to the Disney sitcom, however, it has no relation.  “Good Luck Charlie” was written about Abrams’s close friends, one being Hobert, who she watched go through a breakup that was really hard, but wishing the best for both of them.  Abrams recalls “Good Luck Charlie” being the saddest to write as many tears were shed. Justin Vernon of Bon Iver sings backup vocals on this track which adds another layer of sadness to it, but perfectly rounds out the production.

 

12. “Free Now” 

“Free Now” was teased online before The Secret Of Us was released and was in-demand immediately so of course it quickly became a fan-favourite upon release.  Abrams declared “Free Now” as her absolute favourite on album release day, explaining that the song really helped her to work through a situation, describing it as instinctual, she explains , “I feel like I’m writing because I have to in the same way that I drink water because I have to” (Abrams, Apple Music, 2024).  “Free Now” seems to address a conflicting situation from multiple perspective, holding no true anger or sadness but rather understanding and appreciation for the person and their situation.

 

P.S. “Close To You”

When Abrams originally posted a 20-second snippet of “Close To You” seven years ago, she did not realize it would take off the way it did.  Fans requested Abrams release the song in full for many years and finally she did with The Secret Of Us because it fit the album sonically and thematically more so than any of her previous projects.  While the song is basically the same as the original, there are a couple lyric changes: “But don’t you dare close your eyes, I’m not finished here / Cutting my power line, oh, closer to homicide / Talk me out of it…” (“Close To You”, Verse 1, Lines 3-6, 2017) vs. “smokey dark crowded room, I need nothing, under pink light in June / I was so cool but then all a sudden you saw me look at you” (“Close To You”, Verse 1, Lines 3-6, 2024) and “I didn’t–” (“Close To You”, Verse 2, Line 1, 2017) and “and now–” (“Close To You”, Verse 2, Line 1, 2024).

 

14. “Cool” 

The first track on the deluxe version of The Secret Of Us released on October 18, 2024, is an upbeat, confrontational, sarcastic track directed at an ex-partner.  The song was first played live on September 27, 2024 at The Secret Of Us Tour.  Although many fans preferred the piano version of “Cool” that was originally debuted, I think the production on the final version of the song works a lot better to display the emotional sarcasm and irony in the lyrics.  It seems to callback to the first track off of Good Riddance, “Best” in certain lyrics: “used to lie to your face, twenty times in a day” (“Best”, 2023) and “I said I lied to your face, you can suck it up” (“Cool”, 2024); “I was bored, out my mind…you were there all the time” (“Best”, 2023) and “I’m acting bored it’s my right after all the love that you bombed” (“Cool”, 2024); “I destroyed every silver lining you had” (“Best”, 2023) and “I’ll just look for the silver lining” (“Cool”, 2024)…etc.  Additionally, during The Secret Of Us era, Abrams was asked which song she regretted writing and she said “Best”, although it seems to be one of her favourites because she plays it a lot, maybe she regrets taking all the blame at the time and in “Cool” she’s finally addressing it wasn’t all her fault and some of her actions were warranted? I’m not saying these songs are about the same thing, or even related, I just find the connections interesting.

 

15. “That’s So True” 

“That’s So True” was The Secret Of Us era’s “Close To You” or “In-Between”; an unreleased gem that fans became obsessed with, demanding Abrams release an official version.  Abrams played the unreleased track acoustically a couple of times before fans started catching on and learning the lyrics, shouting them back to her before it was even released.  It’s another petty, confrontational track written with Hobert on the roof of Electric Lady Studios.  The pair recall writing it after a few bottles of wine, some of the original lyrics being quite vulgar and laughing so hard they were crying while singing them. What they didn’t know was that Mumford and Sons was doing an interview in the room above them, until the manager of Electric Lady sent Abrams a text, essentially asking her to quiet down.  Once it was officially released,  “That’s So True” went on to become Abrams first top ten on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at no.6 and is her first and only song to surpass 1 billion streams.

 

16. “I Told You Things” 

“I Told You Things” plays along with the secret theme of The Secret Of Us, as it talks about the narrator’s regrets about opening up to someone.  It’s the only deluxe track that was not performed in full as an unreleased track before its official release. Written with Aaron Dessner, “I Told You Things” has an interesting song-structure and build-up before the ultimate crash-out at the end.  (This is the best deluxe track btw).

 

17. “Packing It Up” 

Abrams played a piano version of “Packing It Up” before its release and explained that the song was about falling in love. Although the song was debuted on piano, I am much fonder of the guitar version included on the album, it captures that soft, pureness of falling in love much better.  It was actually written and recorded on Aaron Dessner’s daughter’s guitar at Long Pond Studio.

 

Editor’s Note: 

Thank you so much for reading! It’s truly incredible to believe it’s already been a year since The Secret Of Us came out.  It’s definitely one of my most streamed and spun albums.  I relate to every song so perfectly, especially during this time of my life. Gracie Abrams had been a favourite artist of mine long before The Secret Of Us so it was really magical and exciting to sit down a year ago today and listen to her second album for the first time.

This era has been so special as it’s helped Gracie achieve a new level of success and that’s been amazing to watch.  It’s crazy seeing her go from bedroom shows, to small venues, to opening for taylor swift, to headlining arenas!  The amount of new Gracie fans that have become a part of our fandom because of this album is so special, it will be a defining album in Gracie’s career; a turning point.  Gracie is one of my number one favourite artists and although I miss when she was our little secret, I’m just so happy she’s finally getting the attention she deserves.

– Kayla <3