The sophomore album from Gracie Abrams, The Secret of Us embodies all the breathless urgency of spilling your heart out to your closest friend at the end of a whirlwind night. "Most of these songs came from reacting to the experience of being 24, and to all the highs and lows of unrequited love and new relationships (or the lack thereof)," says the Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter. "There was something within that drama that felt so fun to explore and sometimes laugh at, even in the face of total disappointment." Co-produced by Abrams and her longtime collaborator Aaron Dessner of The National, The Secret of Us ultimately brings a bold new effervescence to her songwriting— and, in turn, invites the listener to fully delight in their own most chaotic emotions.

Created soon after Abrams took the stage at stadiums all across the country as support for Taylor Swift's blockbuster era tour, The Secret of Us marks her first time taking a hands-on role in the production process-

—a natural progression for a DIY-minded artist who got her start self-

recording songs in her bedroom as a teenager. While the album expands on the finespun lyricism that defined her debut LP Good Riddance (a 2023 release lauded by Rolling Stone for "show[ing] a serious command of autobiographical songwriting"), each song bears a potent yet playful energy thanks in large part to her production choices, including plenty of punchy guitar parts and lavish vocal layering (achieved with the help of her longtime friend Audrey Hobert). "Making this album felt fun in a way I hadn't experienced since I was really young," says Abrams, who enlisted Hobert and Dessner as her sole co-writers on The Secret of Us. "I think that has a lot to do with writing so many songs with my best friend, and making sure to accurately score this moment in our lives."

Mainly recorded at Long Pond Studio (the Hudson Valley homebase for Dessner, whose production discography also includes his Grammy-winning work on Taylor Swift's folklore), The Secret of Us first took shape with the writing of "Risk": a bubbly but incisive track that perfectly encapsulates the album's spirit of reckless exuberance (from the chorus: "God, I'm jumping in the deep end/It's more fun to swim in/Heard the risk is drowning/But I'm gonna take it"). "I remember feeling so energized when Audrey and I wrote 'Risk," Abrams recalls. "It was this magical mix of self-awareness and slight delusion, which became a sort of touchstone for the whole album. The two of us live together as well, so after that we fell into a pattern where we'd wake up and start working on songs just because it felt so fun to write about our lives in real

Although The Secret of Us sustains the self-contained minimalism Abrams has embraced since her acclaimed debut project minor, its songs encompass a depth of sonic detail beautifully suited to the album's wildly shifting moods. To that end, "Blowing Smoke" muses on the thrill and frustration of unmet longing, setting her inner narrative to a backdrop of dreamy synth, moody sub bass, and mercurial guitar work (including her own contributions on acoustic guitar and a gorgeously frenetic performance from Bon Iver's Justin Vernon). "I wrote 'Blowing Smoke' thinking about the very specific headspace that accompanies unrequited love, and how the tiniest little things can propel you into such extreme modes of thinking," Abrams points out.