Gracie Abrams' debut album Good Riddance is a stunning showcase of the singer-songwriter's raw and emotional songwriting style. With her ethereal vocals and deeply personal lyrics, Abrams invites listeners into her world of heartbreak and self-discovery, weaving together a collection of songs that are both hauntingly beautiful and painfully honest.
The album opens with the title track "Best," a mournful ballad that sets the tone for the rest of the record. Abrams' delicate vocals float over the sparse instrumentation, as she sings of coming to terms with the end of a relationship. From there, the album delves deeper into the themes of love, loss, and growing up.
One standout track is "Full Machine," which showcases Abrams' ability to capture complex emotions with just a few well-chosen words. Over a bed of shimmering synths and gentle guitar, she sings of the struggle to move on from a past love that she just can't move past: "I'm a forest fire/You're the kerosene.”
The following song is "Where do we go now," the lead single from "Good Riddance." In this ballad, Abrams is most accurately described as being confused and lost. She ponders whether a new beginning would be beneficial for them or if the damage has left a wound that is too deep to be totally healed as she thinks back on her relationship, which was full of "harmless" white lies and frightening red flags. We are guided through the agonizing song "I should hate you" by an acoustic guitar. Despite the terrible nature of the relationship, which left Abrams with knives in her back, she can't help but feel the want to relapse into her ex's embrace. Abrams finds herself in a one-sided relationship and starts to cry in "Will you cry," which features a dreamy synth and layered vocals.
Throughout Good Riddance, Abrams' voice remains the focal point, and for good reason. Her delicate, vulnerable vocals are perfectly suited to the intimate nature of the songs, and she imbues each track with a sense of raw emotion that is hard to ignore.
We take a step back from the intense instrumental score here as Abrams reenacts a brief encounter with "Amelie." The dreamy acoustic piece, which is breathtakingly honest and lovely, shows Abrams straining as she seeks proof that Amelie is real—possibly the only constant in her life. In the joyful dreamy pop song "Difficult," Abrams continues to struggle. Abrams' fall starts when she wants to be invisible so she won't have to face her faults since she is afraid of change.
The most unexpected song on the album is “This is what the pills are for,” which has indie-folk guitar backing the vulnerable Abrams as she looks for the greatest kind of self-medication as everything around her falls apart. The words to Abrams' song, "What am I supposed to do when you used to be my lifeline," have a jovial exterior but reveal the truth.
Abrams sings in a somber tone, "You're the drug I take when I want to forget how I'm feeling," in the song "Fault Line," which is stripped down to the bare essentials with a delicate acoustic guitar and a hushed ambient synth whispering through the crevices. She ultimately finds her happy ending in the enchanting and heartwarming melody "The blue" after experiencing so much heartache and destruction. demonstrating how, on occasion, what we want might appear when we least expect it and when we most need it if we give up looking for it. The album ends with the exquisite piano ballad "Right Now," which continues Abrams' stream of consciousness as she starts to feel more alive than ever after working through her problems.
Overall, Good Riddance is a stunning debut from Gracie Abrams. With its beautifully crafted songs and heartfelt lyrics, the album is a testament to the power of vulnerability and the human experience. It's an album that will resonate with anyone who has ever loved and lost and is a promising sign of things to come for this talented young artist.
