In Defense of Gracie Abrams

am I a person? or am I just a bunch of gracie abrams lyrics glued together?

Gracie Abrams was recently announced as the recipient of the 2025 Billboard Women in Music “Songwriter of the Year” award, and as with everything to do with Gracie these days, many people had thoughts. Fortunately, I do too and since Spotify still refuses to let me add notes to playlists, I’m taking them out here. This is less of an article than it is a collection of all my favorite Gracie Abrams lyrics for my personal enjoyment.

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minor (2020)

In 2021, I came across Gracie’s music through a Spotify playlist on a late-night drive. I stumbled upon “Friend” and was forever changed as through my earbuds, Gracie sang, “I don’t wanna see you again if it’s different / ‘Cause I’ll only see all the things that I’m missing / And I should’ve cut all the ties, but I didn’t / I didn’t let go.” minor was the inspiration for Olivia Rodrigo’s “drivers license,” so at the very least, Olivia understands my love for Gracie’s songwriting.

Long Sleeves: "And if you hear me / Leaving in the morning / Could you just pretend that it was only wind? / 'Cause I can't love you / Even if I want to / Got a lot to work through / You don't know where I've been"

minor: "I would drive all night to get to you / But my curfew is early and mom's up at home / I would run for miles to get to you / But you gotta understand I can't cause / M-I-N-O-R / I'm minorly stuck / And it's not your fault / Just how things are"

This Is What It Feels Like (2021)

I have so much nostalgia for This Is What It Feels Like. It was pretty much all I listened to the autumn it came out, and “Feels Like” was one of my most listened to tracks that year. I think it’s her most underrated project and will likely remain that way for the rest of her career, but I still hope it gets its flowers someday.

Rockland: "Hey, who took my place in bed when I left? / Who laughs at everything that you said? / I'm sure that I would like her / If I were slightly nicer"

For Real This Time: "I've taken down all the pictures in my room / I've hidden things that reminded me of you / I know I've lied, but I think that I'm for real this time"

Older: "Pinch me now, you're caught in my crossfire / Fell into my arms, but they got tired / We were so good, weren't we? / 'Til it just stopped working"

Painkillers: "Hold me slowly / You don't even know me / Home now, lights out / Pictures just destroy me / Come through late, and tell me that you want it bad"

Good Riddance (2023)

I vividly remember sitting in my childhood bedroom the night Good Riddance came out and just sobbing through all twelve tracks because I had never heard anything so devastatingly raw and vulnerable in my life. I had no clue what it was like to go through a breakup, but I could feel the depth of Gracie’s pain in every verse and knew I was witnessing something special.

Best: "Now I bet you resent all of me, all of it / Angry, blocking me over the internet / Promise I don't forget all of my fault in this"

I know it won't work: "I left you here / Heard you keep the extra closet empty / In case this year / I come back and stay throughout my twenties / What if I won't? / How am I supposed to put that gently?"

Where do we go now?: "I know I changed overnight / So, I can't blame you for fighting / And I'd be losing my mind / If you lived in your writing"

I should hate you: “After all of this time, I still get disappointed / Bet you’re doing alright and you don’t even know it / How it’s all ‘cause of you that my standards are broken in my mind / I would bend back to you if you left the door open”

Fault line: “You could go and I bet I’d recover / Overnight, finish hurting each other / You feel light-year away, if I met you today / I would run to the arms of another”

Block me out: “It’s not their fault, but I’ve found that none of my friends will call me / Until I’m left to myself, it’s honestly kind of funny / How every voice in my head, is trying its best to haunt me”

405: “Please? You won’t even look at me / It’s getting embarrassing, I’m crying to my family”

Two People: "Now to make sense of half of a decade / Feels like walking alone on the freeway / 'Cause you know everything that could kill me / And you know, you know every inch of my body"

Abby (demo): "I was just thinking, do you remember going to New York back in November? / Swallowing chocolate, sharing a king bed / Judging an album, judging my boyfriend / Isn't it funny, we're getting older / You used to fit right up on my shoulders / I can't believe our childhood is over / I'm really grateful I get to know you"

The Secret of Us (2024)

The Secret of Us is Gracie’s most upbeat and commercially successful album yet. It’s rightfully been her songwriting that has led to her meteoric rise this past year with the bridge of “That’s So True” being inescapable on TikTok. Regardless of what direction she goes in with her sound moving forward, her songwriting is what resonates with fans the most and will undoubtedly continue being her biggest asset.

Blowing Smoke: "And I bet you're at her place right now / You're taking off your shoes, she's lying down / Tell me, is she prettier than she was on the internet? / Are your conversations cool? Like, are you even interested?"

Let It Happen: "Get my shit together, it's whatever, I could die / Knowing that you're probably out somewhere / While I'm in underwear / Eating through my feelings, I'm still reeling, but it's fine / Oh, thank God that you're not seeing this / I'll spare you from everything"

Tough Love: "No, I'm not gonna miss the way he'd kick me in my bed while sleeping / And I'm not gonna miss his shitty friends and nights of their binge drinking / And I'm not gonna miss his old inflated ego, shallow thinking / And I'm not gonna miss denying that I got my own damn reasons"

Gave You I Gave You I: "I held my head, I used to hold you but now I'll walk around us / And I won't lie and claim confused when I know just what happened / You got bored, and I felt used, now I'm all sad about it"

Normal People: "I practice speeches in private / I was impressed with my every line / I think we call that performing / That's not how I want to spend my life"

Free Now: "If you find yourself out, if there is a right time / Chances are I'll be here, we could share a lifeline / If you feel like fallin', catch me on the way down / Never been less empty, all I feel is free now"

I Told You Things: "But how's the city been? / You get recognized at the local bar / By the drunken guys / And the starlet girls, they claw for pieces / Do you give a few? Do you like that? / Do you freak out or get sad? / Do you go home, or am I reaching?"