Gracie Abrams released her third studio album “Daughter from Hell” on July 17. It follows her breakout sophomore album “The Secret of Us,” which propelled her into a new level of stardom with several hits, including “That’s So True,” her first top 10 single. The record differed from her previous work as it moved more into pop territory while expanding on her songwriting with piercing lyrics and imagery. Her newest album was met with high expectations because of the success of “The Secret of Us,” but “Daughter from Hell” is a return to form as it resembles the style of her debut album and EPs. This return is a reverse musical evolution on this newest project, and the result is middling.
The title of the album feels misleading. “Daughter from Hell” implies scathing, edgy material that would perhaps commentate on family struggles. But the titular track, which is a love letter and apology to Abrams’ mother, does not relate to the rest of the album. The songs lack a central theme or image that unites them within the album and even within each individual song, the writing is unfocused.
The opening track “Hit the Wall” foreshadows this issue. While the single is catchy, the lyrics are overwhelmed with different metaphors and images. The singer portrays various struggles, but the story still feels vague. The lyrics never linger long enough on one idea to flesh it out. This lack of a single concept that ties a song together is the downfall of other tracks like “Mews,” “What If It’s Right” and “Cold Goodbyes.” Each one of those songs struggles to convey a strong, singular message. Often, there is a specific idea portrayed in one part of the song, but it is not supported by the rest of it. Abrams’ sprawling verses are a songwriting strength when properly honed, but in several songs on “Daughter from Hell” she seems to lose a song’s concept as it goes on.
Vague songwriting also causes the song “Broke My Heart” to fall flat. In this song, Abrams breaks the sacred writing technique of show don’t tell. She directly tells the listener that the subject of the song broke her heart but fails to show how or why through specific verses. She makes several general claims about how the relationship fell apart, like the person changing overnight and not fighting hard enough to save their bond, but these lines do not resonate without more detail.
On her previous album “The Secret of Us,” songs like “I Love You, I’m Sorry” and “Let It Happen” used imagery to express the singer’s yearning, and that’s what allowed the audience to connect with them so well. In “I Love You, I’m Sorry,” the line “Wistfully lean out my window and watch the sun set on the lake,” paints a very specific, memorable image. In “Let It Happen,” Abrams sings “I had a backbone made of glass, and then it broke / Now I stay up and I wait here by the phone.” This helps the audience understand how she has traded her pride for the subject’s attention. This newest album turns away from that type of songwriting and suffers because of it.
However, there are a few standout tracks on “Daughter from Hell,” such as “Death Wish,” a powerful ballad that Abrams debuted while on tour. The song builds to a magnificent ending where the singer doesn’t hold back her anger. It’s reminiscent of the emotional songs previously mentioned like “Let It Happen” and succeeds in areas where other tracks fail. Particularly, the lines “Your light of a million suns burns through people / And bridges and cities ‘til ash covers grounds,” evoke a poignant image of destruction. The only pitfall of this song is that the live performance’s production is far better than the studio production. The simple piano allows for the vocals to shine through. Abrams is incredible at singing evocatively in her live performances. The version of this song that appears on the album speeds up the vocals, erasing some of the emotion that her cadence expresses in the live version.
Some other exceptional songs on the album include “Good Reason” and “Humming.” What they have in common is that they commit to one specific, unique concept throughout the song. In “Good Reason,” Abrams ruminates on the guilt she feels after ending a relationship in which her partner didn’t treat her badly, but she still felt that something wasn’t right. Instead of wishing the person treated her better, she wishes they did something hurtful. The bridge uses “if only” phrases to reveal all the ways that she was the villain of the relationship instead of her ex. The lyrics are focused, with each one contributing to an emotional story.
“Humming” takes the concept of dreams and uses it to show the disillusionment she feels in both her personal life and within wider society. In the first verse and chorus, she experiences a romantic moment with someone only to awaken to her reality without them. In the second part of the song, reality is the dream she wants to wake up from. She references the 2025 Los Angeles wildfires and criticizes political leaders with the line, “And there’s no one at the top to believe.” She also invokes the image of them having “our blood on their hands” and ends with a haunting outro of the words “never clean.”
It’s unfortunate that after forging something extraordinary with her sophomore album, Abrams returned to familiar territory with her third. This time, the sea of heartbreak songs blend together due to vague lyrics and monotonous sonics. She’s capable of going to extremes, but “Daughter from Hell” is stuck in a limbo between vagueness and vulnerability.
Ayiana Grana is an Arts & Entertainment Staff Writer. She can be reached at angrana@uci.edu.
Edited by Jocelyn Cosgrove and Joshua Gonzales.
