Gracie Abrams’ music changed my life last year. I randomly heard about her from my high school best friend. She was going through a break with her “situationship” so she started listening to Gracie Abrams. This meant that as her best friend, this is what we were playing in the car constantly. The first album I ever listened to was Good Riddance. This is an album that still runs my life and I relate certain situations to this day. Especially after my past romantic experiences this year, this album makes me feel healed in a way. So I thought I would go through this album and say what five songs hit me hardest.
5. Full Machine
This is the first song on the album I listened to. I can feel the song in my bones when I listen to it. In this song, she describes a relationship where a person is bad for you but you want to stay with them because you are better with that person. As a person who has felt like this in past relationships, it is one of the hardest feelings to accept. When you want to leave but want to stay at the same time because it is easier or better. Her making this song gave me such a unique feeling of being completely understood. Knowing that other people have felt the same way as me made me feel a level of comfort I have never experienced before. My favorite verse from this song is “I’ll heal eventually but faster if you’re next to me”.
4. Difficult
I broke out into tears listening to this song in the library on Tuesday night. In this song, she describes what it is like to feel completely disconnected from the world. It describes her disconnect from her partners as well as her parents. She feels as if she wants to escape. This song puts so much light on mental health issues in such a new way. My favorite line in this song is “My double vision is only amplifyin’ everythin’ he isn’t till I feel less attached and bored to death, but listen”. Sadly I completely understand what she is describing in this part and it makes you feel like such an awful person, but it is how you feel at the end of the day.
3. I should hate you
In this song, she describes the feeling of what it is like to have feelings for someone who has done you so wrong in the past. This song takes me back to a time when I felt the same way about a person, and it is the most exhausting feeling ever to put yourself through. You feel a sense of guilt but at the same time, it is the one thing that makes you feel happy. My favorite line in this song is “Because I was the one who would stay up and call you”. She is describing an experience that a lot of us go through when we are trying to get over our exes and we just cannot let go.
2. I know it won’t work
This song describes the aftermath of a breakup. Where one person wants to let go but the other person wants to try and fix the relationship. I wish this song was around when I was going through my first breakup because I was the person who wanted to fix the relationship. But as Gracie says in the song, “I know it won’t work like that huh”. She is too real for this lyric. She made me feel understood and I wish I had this song sooner so I never had to feel like I should have fixed it and wanted it to work out. My favorite line in this song is “And part of me wants to walk away till you really listen”. I quote this so often when people have made me feel a way that I never want to feel again. Such a healing experience listening to this song!!
1. Where do we go now
This is by far my absolute favorite song that she has ever released, so I had to save it for last. She talks about the ending of a relationship and where to go after that. She knows the answer is clear but she still poses it as a question to her partner. There are so many verses in here that changed my life the first time I heard them. Like “Guess the space was the thing that I needed but I miss you”. Words are unable to be said about how this song made me feel. It is one of those songs you do not truly enjoy until you are in that part of your life. And you step back and say “wow this song changed how I thought about that situation.”