Album Review
The star’s third album dives more fully into her inner world, with a bigger, more satisfying sound to match
“I’m living with a knife in my side/I’m gonna take it for a joy ride,” Gracie Abrams sings three songs into her new album. This isn’t the first time the word “knife” appears on Daughter from Hell, nor is it the last. She’ll reference knives four different times across the album, and that’s not even including the stunning piano ballad “The Knife.” For Abrams, these blades are a tool to describe her pain — the way they twist, cut to the bone, and even linger a while. And on Daughter From Hell, you’d almost think she likes it. “They’re daring me to pull it out,” she sings. “I’ll probably keep it for a lifetime.”
Expectations are high for Daughter From Hell, out this Friday via Interscope. And that’s not just because it’s Abrams’ third album, a famously challenging make-or-break moment in every artist’s career. Abrams, the daughter of filmmaker J.J. Abrams and Hollywood producer Katie McGrath, released her debut, Good Riddance, in 2023 — the same year she opened for Taylor Swift on the Eras Tour and received a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist. A year later, she released her second album, The Secret of Us, and the deluxe edition featured her first Top 10 hit: the highly addictive joyride “That’s So True” (we’re still waiting to hear the “very vulgar” version of it). Abrams has been dismissed as a “nepo baby,” a tag she has talked about with grace and self-awareness. She’s also been the source of dumb memes, a perpetual sad girl who, so says the internet, has no right to be — especially when you have rock-hard abs and you’re dating a famous actor (who also has rock-hard abs).
