Gracie Abrams' Third Album Mines the Ache of Early Adulthood

Critics praise the singer's sharp, witty lyrics but say muted production holds the record back.

Gracie Abrams has released her third studio album, a collection that critics say captures the emotional turbulence of early adulthood with unusual precision.

According to the BBC, the record is built on incisive, witty lyrics that examine pain and uncertainty with a clear-eyed honesty rare for an artist still early in her career. Reviewers singled out Abrams' songwriting as the album's strongest asset, describing her turns of phrase as sharp enough to cut through the record's more subdued moments.

But the BBC's assessment was not uniformly glowing. The outlet said the production throughout the album is muted, leaving listeners wanting more from songs whose lyrical content promises bigger emotional payoffs than the arrangements deliver. The result, according to the review, is a project that showcases Abrams' maturing voice as a writer even as its sonic choices keep it from reaching its full potential.

Abrams has built her following in recent years on confessional songwriting that traces the messiness of growing up, and this latest release continues that thread, framing the record as a chronicle of the pain particular to early adulthood. The album arrives as Abrams continues to expand her audience beyond the pop-adjacent singer-songwriter scene where she first broke through.

— Compiled from reporting by the BBC.