Music: New albums from Gracie Abrams and Linda Thompson

by Gracie Abrams

When squadrons of local fans flew to Australia to see Taylor Swift, Facebook – the soapbox for those who think writing “Taylor who?” passes for wit – was awash with bile and venom: she couldn’t write decent songs, was a manufactured child of privilege whose monied parents engineered her fame ….

Those folk could have a new Swift-anointed target: 24-year-old Gracie Abrams, daughter of film writer and director JJ Abrams (Mission Impossible III, the recent reboot of the Star Wars franchise) and producer Katie McGrath. Her 2023 debut album Good Riddance was co-written with, and produced by, The National’s Aaron Dessner, who has worked with Swift; she picked up a best new artist Grammy nomination; and has won praise from Lorde, Olivia Rodrigo and Billie Eilish.

She opened on the US leg of Swift’s Eras tour and the superstar appears on one song (the complex and dramatic Us) on this new album, which debuted at No 2 on our charts.

For The Secret of Us, Dessner is back as co-producer and co-writer; Swift and her longtime collaborator/producer Jack Antonoff are also credited as co-producers; Justin Vernon (Bon Iver) appears, as does Los Angeles-based expat Kiwi Sam de Jong, who has worked with Pink, Amy Shark and Muse.

All that offers ammunition for social media trolls who would dismiss her music without the inconvenience of listening.

But the album – albeit self-centred, self-pitying contemporary mope-pop with the lyrical detail Swift and The National employ – is a plausible collection of discreet songs about finding meaning after a relationship ends.

Blowing Smoke addresses self-doubt when he’s got a pretty new girlfriend (a Taylor-adjacent idea); Let It Happen probes uncertainty (“I’m aware I could end up here alone”), there are snapshot images (Tough Love) and letting go (Normal Thing).

Gracie Abrams may have had a head-start in the fame game, but she articulates being romantic wreckage in your mid 20s.

by Linda Thompson