{"id":6817,"date":"2026-07-15T16:54:50","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T11:54:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=6817"},"modified":"2026-07-15T16:54:50","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T11:54:50","slug":"gracie-abrams-is-her-own-biggest-obstacle-on-daughter-from-hell-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=6817","title":{"rendered":"Gracie Abrams Is Her Own Biggest Obstacle on Daughter From Hell: Review"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/consequence.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Gracie-abrams-Live-Report.jpg?quality=80\" \/><\/p>\n<div data-id=\"1611349\" data-title=\"On Daughter from Hell, Gracie Abrams Is Her Own Greatest Obstacle: Review\" data-url=\"https:\/\/consequence.net\/2026\/07\/gracie-abrams-daughter-from-hell-review\/\" data-page=\"1\" data-pages=\"2\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/consequence.net\/artist\/gracie-abrams\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Gracie Abrams<\/a> wields quite the instrument. The singer and songwriter, now 26 and a touring vet, sounds better than ever on her new album\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/4vWjqIQ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\"><em>Daughter from Hell<\/em><\/a>. She\u2019s got range: soaring soprano melodies and booming belts, intimate whispers and delicately-sung meditations cracking through like the morning sun. She\u2019s got a very raw quality to her voice, which is often reduced to rasp or rendered with imperfections, so as to be presented with more truth and grit than her prior work. Listening to <em>Daughter from Hell<\/em>, her vocal versatility is the primary quality of her artistry on display.<\/p>\n<p>If only her songwriting had the same range! Too often on\u00a0<em>Daughter from Hell<\/em>, Abrams courts the idea of being a little unserious but very, very rarely pushes her sound towards the unexpected. This is an album called <em>Daughter from Hell<\/em> \u2014 a dramatic, funny title \u2014 with lyrics that are occasionally (you guessed it) dramatic and funny. She even seems to be aware that she takes everything too seriously and essentially makes fun of herself for it, especially on the standout title track \u201cLook at My Life.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/vivid-seats.pxf.io\/c\/1882189\/952533\/12730?subId1=gracie-abrams%2Adaughter-from-hell-review-tour-button&amp;subId2=&amp;subId3=&amp;sharedid=&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.vividseats.com%2Fgracie-abrams-tickets%2Fperformer%2F125633\" class=\"button button-ticket\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Shop Gracie Abrams Tickets Here<\/a><\/p>\n<p>But even with the confessional outpour that is now inseparable from her sound, <em>Daughter from Hell <\/em>is desperately in need of more levity, of musical choices that go hand in hand with the vulnerability of her lyrics instead of functioning as a blank slate to lament on top of. Really, it sounds like Gracie Abrams has a hard time getting out of her own way.<\/p>\n<p>Related Video<\/p>\n<p>There are a few moments where Abrams snaps out of it and leaps from the trap set by Aaron Dessner, a producer and songwriter who specializes in a kind of muted, weightless indie folk presentation that, I would argue, is ultimately holding Abrams back. \u201cLook at My Life\u201d is one of them, and funnily enough, it\u2019s co-produced by Dan Nigro, Olivia Rodrigo and Chappell Roan\u2019s main man. Across a racing instrumental, Abrams sings pretty candidly about the tension between being famous and still being stuck in her own bullshit. \u201cGot what I wanted\/ It doesn\u2019t sit right,\u201d she declares in the chorus as the song swells and bursts.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Gracie Abrams - Look at My Life (Official Music Video)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/2YSnCqHXMGY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u201cMinibar,\u201d co-written with her good pal Audrey Hobert, is another bright spot, as she sings about always feels like an outsider looking in, whether that\u2019s with other famous people or within the general public (\u201cSomeone perceived me\/ Kinda scarred\u201d goes one great line). Along with \u201cLook at My Life,\u201d it\u2019s got the same messy outpour that defined Abrams\u2019 biggest hit, \u201cThat\u2019s So True,\u201d where there\u2019s a real willingness to lay bare in a way that feels like a friend oversharing instead of a curated diary entry.<\/p>\n<p>But with 16 songs,\u00a0<em>Daughter from Hell<\/em> can\u2019t be all restless fun or self-aware, half-ironic anthems. Just like the last album,\u00a0<em>The Secret of Us<\/em>, there are a lot of ballads \u2014 dare I say <em>too many<\/em> ballads \u2014 and you best believe these ballads are <em>serious<\/em>. Heartbreak is a very present theme on this album, especially on the wispy \u201cGood Reason,\u201d the T-Swiftian \u201cBroke My Heart,\u201d and the car-themed \u201cMews.\u201d It\u2019s a whole lot of yearning for one person, so Abrams often gives her lonesome melodies some company and adds rich harmonies atop; it really works on \u201cImaginary Friend,\u201d a track she co-wrote with her boyfriend Paul Mescal, as well as the penultimate cut \u201cWhat if It\u2019s Right,\u201d a country-leaning Marcus Mumford collab that sounds a short skip away from a Kacey Musgraves song.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s well known now that Abrams comes from a showbiz family, and that\u2019s very apparent in her understanding of drama and stakes within a song. A big reason that her vocals are so strong on this album is because Abrams is acting the part very well, scaling the size of her delivery to try and convey the gravity of her feelings. She can do the righteous fury of \u2018this song is all about how you hurt me\u2019 better than most; the metaphor-heavy lyrics on \u201cMews\u201d may be a bit stale (\u201cYou swore you\u2019d go right but you went left instead\u201d), but the heartbroken tones she provides on the mic are evocative and affecting. And like her musical hero Taylor Swift, Abrams loves a Crucial Bridge\u2122, where the stakes of the song reach their highest point and she tumbles through lyrics in a fit of passion. Even without watching her perform, you can tell Abrams really <em>means<\/em> what she sings \u2014 which is maybe her best quality in addition to being a generally skilled singer.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script>\n\t\t!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s){if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?\n\t\tn.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;\n\t\tn.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=1;\n\t\tt.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window,\n\t\tdocument,'script','https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\n\t\tfbq('init', '1753966171496536');\n\t\tfbq('set','agent','tmgoogletagmanager', '1753966171496536');\n\t\tfbq('track', \"PageView\");\n\t<\/script><script defer crossorigin=\"anonymous\" src=\"https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/sdk.js#xfbml=1&#038;version=v7.0&#038;appId=434175690014\" nonce=\"6gwmbCtM\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Gracie Abrams wields quite the instrument. The singer and songwriter, now 26 and a touring vet, sounds better than ever on her new album\u00a0Daughter from Hell. She\u2019s got range: soaring soprano melodies and booming belts, intimate whispers and delicately-sung meditations cracking through like the morning sun. She\u2019s got a very raw quality to her voice,&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6818,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/consequence.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Gracie-abrams-Live-Report.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsweek-trending"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6817"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6817\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}