Image source, Getty Images Image caption, Gracie Abrams' confessional, relatable lyrics have made her one of pop's most sought-after songwriters
Music correspondent Published 18 July 2026 Knives. So many knives. Gracie Abrams' third album is like a cutlery drawer full of daggers.
They're stuck in her back, waiting to be twisted by a two-faced friend. She's "cut to the bone" by the careless words of a lover. Abrams even has a song called The Knife, where she proclaims she'll live with a blade "in my side", as an act of defiance.
" They're daring me to pull it out / I'll probably keep it for a lifetime. "
Her lyrics are equally sharp and penetrating. The album has a broad theme of responsibility, as Abrams accepts blame for her mistakes, without letting others off the hook.
On the stunning ballad Good Reason, she struggles with the idea of a relationship fizzling out, with no major disagreements, just the gut feeling it's not working.
" I'm only half sure that I mean it, " she sighs as she calls it off. "If only I had a good reason."
Broke My Heart finds her on the other side of a break-up. " How could I know you and not have a clue? " she pleads. " No difference to you / but you just broke my heart ."
The knife, she's realised, cuts both ways.
Figure caption, Gracie Abrams plays her single Hit The Wall and a cover of Ariana Grande's We Can't Be Friends (Wait For Your Love).
Abrams' record is called Daughter From Hell, a reference to her rebellious teenage years, and it arrives to a flurry of anticipation.
The 26-year-old has been making introspective, confessional pop since the end of the 2010s, but her career really took off with the release of her debut album, Good Riddance in 2023. That year, she supported Taylor Swift on the Eras tour, and won a Grammy nomination for best new artist.
She earned her first UK number one in 2024 with That's So True, a single from the deluxe edition of her second album, The Secret Of Us. Anticipation for her new work has been building since last year, when she performed two new songs – Death Wish and Cold Goodbyes – on tour.
They hinted at a darker, more gothic aesthetic, with lyrics haunted by ghostly figures and existential crises.
Cold Goodbyes, in particular, is set to the sound of an unsettling synth drone – a world away from the gently-plucked ballads of her earlier work.
Sadly, it's an outlier. The music on Daughter From Hell is largely the same as before: low key, whisper-soft, self-interrogating, floaty and inconsequential.
The pianos are always muted, the drums all sound like they're being played next door, and the orchestra is buried deep in the mix to foreground Abrams' voice.
Image source, Julie Greve Image caption, The pop star has toured with Olivia Rodrigo and Taylor Swift; and collaborated with Bon Iver and Mumford & Sons
That's not a consistently bad choice. When Abrams sings about feeling like a burden on the lead single Hit The Wall, for example, her vocals are isolated in a way that emphasises her loneliness and disconnection.
But over the album's 16 tracks, the gossamer production – by indie-folk guru Aaron Dessner (Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran) – is too insubstantial to sustain interest.
Worse still, it's at odds with the serrated edges of Abrams' lyrics.
Take the song Humming, which observes the US through the eyes of someone who's grown up knowing no…