The Secret of Us
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.
Proxy Music
by Linda Thompson
The great English folk artist Linda Thompson may have lost the ability to sing (she suffers from spasmodic dysphonia), but her humour remains intact.
On the cover of this celebration-cum-tribute, the 76-year-old replicates model Kari-Ann Moller’s seductive pose on the cover of Roxy Music’s 1972 self-titled debut.
Here, her songs are sung by family and friends, including Rufus and Martha Wainwright, The Proclaimers, The Unthanks, her former husband Richard and their son Teddy and daughter Kami.
There are layers of referencing: John Grant sings her paean to him John Grant (which he co-wrote); producer/co-writer Teddy sings Those Damn Roches about the Roche sisters whose lives and music were interwoven with the Thompsons and the McGarrigle sisters (Rufus and Martha are Kate McGarrigle’s children with Loudon Wainwright, Loudon later married Suzzy Roche.) A complex family tree.
With classy trans-Atlantic folk and folk-rock, some barbed lyrics, moving ballads and cabaret songs (Rufus with Darling This Will Never Do), Linda Thompson may be denied her voice, but she isn’t silenced. As the final line of Those Damn Roches says: “When we’re singing loud and strong, who can take us?” l
These albums are available digitally, on CD and vinyl.
