The Secret of Us: ranking the top 5 songs on Gracie Abrams’ sophomore album

2024 has been a year for girlhood, and this artist definitely got the memo. “Tough Love” is an anthem to celebrate and romanticise healthy female friendships and the joy they bring. Abrams claims that of all the guys she’s been with, “Not one of them [are] cooler than all [her] friends” and makes it clear that her friends always take priority over any romantic relationship.

While “Tough Love” follows a classic pop beat, the chorus does a magical job of hooking you in, making you want to play the song on loop all day long with your friends.

As the album’s opening single, “Risk” is fun and a little audacious – a slight turn in musical direction from the Grammy-nominated artist’s usual heartfelt ballads.

Accompanied by a playful music video directed by the artist’s best friend Audrey Hobert, this confessional tune is about having feelings for someone while realising the unpredictability that comes with that. The singer breaks down complicated romantic emotions and their tendency to feel like a gamble with lyrics such as “God, I’m actually invested, haven’t even met him, watch this be the wrong thing, classic.”

Confessional songwriting on Gracie Abrams’ debut ‘Good Riddance’

Abrams, similar to her good friend Taylor Swift, keeps a vault of unreleased songs her fans constantly pester her to release. One of these songs, “Close to You”, is a not-so-well-kept secret from when Abrams used to post song demos on social media, and it got lucky enough to be included in the tracklist for this album. In fact, it was the album’s second single and led to Gracie’s first entry in the top 40 of Billboard’s prestigious “Hot 100” chart.

Unlike most of her songs, “Close to You” leans into production strongly with catchy beats, a robotic voice at times and louder instrumentals. The song has gained over 70 million streams on Spotify and is one of the most streamed tracks on the album.

In 2020, Abrams released her groundbreaking hit, “I Miss You, I’m Sorry”, which set the course of her career. With haunting lines like “You said, ‘Forever’, and I almost bought it”, “I Miss You, I’m Sorry” still holds a spot in almost every break-up playlist.

When Abrams released the track’s “big sister”, a song titled “I Love You, I’m Sorry”, everyone prepared to get their hearts broken yet again. While “I Miss You, I’m Sorry” showcases a young, naive character who is filled with regret and sadness, its sister track is almost a grown-up version.

It follows a similar theme of dealing with a break-up, but Abrams sounds more confident, self-aware and mature. She owns up to her mistakes with lyrics such as “I’m wrong again, wrong again” but doesn’t sound too worried about it, embracing her flaws instead of burying them.

Taylor Swift has once again proven that any song she touches becomes enchanting. Written together over the course of a night, “us.” is a title track that deserves all the attention it gets. Its melodic verses hit just right, the bridge is gorgeously dramatic, and Abrams’ and Swift’s voices sound like they were made for each other.

Both singers have mastered the art of poetic lyricism, and this song reveals that to its fullest. From the lyric “Babylon lovers hangin’ lifetimes on a vine” to “The curse or a miracle, hearse or an oracle”, the pair showcase just how powerful their pen game is and construct a song that will make you want to hit replay over and over again.