Gracie Abrams is not slowing down. The 26-year-old singer-songwriter has announced her third studio album, Daughter From Hell, set for release on July 17. If you’re just catching up, this is the artist behind Good Riddance and The Secret of Us, and she’s been steadily building toward something bigger with each release.
This new project finds Abrams once again working with producer Aaron Dessner, a collaboration that began years ago and has clearly grown into something meaningful for both artists. “It’s definitely my favorite music I ever made,” Abrams told Hollywood Reporter earlier this year. “I feel very closely connected to it. I appreciate so much that these albums are time capsules of where I’m at in my life at any given point, but right now it does feel very like me.”
That’s the kind of statement that gets fans paying attention. When an artist says their new work is their most personal, it’s usually worth taking seriously.
The First Single Hits Hard
On May 14, Abrams shared “Hit the Wall” as the lead single from Daughter From Hell. The track opens up with some genuinely devastating lyrics: “Funny, ain’t it? / Flashbacks of my life / What a waste, oh, what a shame at night / Face to face with every girl that I tried to play.” The bridge in particular has that introspective punch that Abrams has become known for.
She wrote the song in New York after wrapping the Secret of Us tour, a period where she found herself missing friends and feeling “a bit disconnected from a lot of my life.” She described it to SiriusXM as the first time in a while she was able to “put words to these feelings that are a bit intrusive and uncomfortable to sit with.” There’s something refreshing about an artist who openly admits vulnerability instead of packaging everything as empowerment.
The Dessner Dynamic
If you’ve followed Abrams’ career, the Dessner partnership won’t come as a surprise. The two have been collaborating for six years now, and Dessner shared on Instagram that they started working on Daughter From Hell the same day they recorded “That’s So True” and “I Told You Things” for The Secret of Us deluxe edition.
Dessner’s enthusiasm is worth noting. He called the album “the most moving and powerful work we have done together” and praised Abrams’ “sharpening and deepening” as a lyricist. High praise from someone who’s worked with some of the biggest names in music.
What stands out is the organic nature of their process. Abrams mentioned to Billboard that they’re “catching each other in these little pockets between hectic times,” which sounds exhausting but also hints at a genuine creative rhythm rather than a manufactured studio schedule.
The Tour Is Coming
Fans won’t have to wait too long to hear these songs live. Abrams will kick off the The Look at My Life Tour on December 2 in support of the album. The run spans 27 cities with multi-night shows, including four nights at the Kia Forum in Los Angeles and another four at Barclays Center in Brooklyn. That’s a significant jump in venue size, indicating the kind of growth artists dream about.
The openers list is lengthy and includes Rachel Chinouriri, Del Water Gap, Jensen McRae, the Japanese House, Holly Humberstone, Charlotte Lawrence, Grace Ives, Bella Kay, Samia, and Jake Minch on various dates. It’s a curate’s egg of rising indie and alternative artists.
What strikes me most about this announcement is how deliberately Abrams seems to be approaching her career. She’s talked about trying to “take the pressure off myself to have to reinvent,” which is smart. Reinvention can often mean abandoning what made you compelling in the first place. Instead, she’s focusing on deepening what already works while quietly pushing forward.
Daughter From Hell seems like the kind of record that will divide listeners into those who get it and those who don’t. But honestly, that’s usually a sign an artist is onto something interesting.
