Gracie Abrams

One Liner: Lo-fi bedroom pop of confessional lyrics from JJ Abrams daughter

Wikipedia Genre: Pop

Home: L.A.

Poster Position: Line 10
Both Weekends.

Saturday at 3:20 on the VRBO Stage.

Thoughts:  After listening for a while, and being genuinely curious how this girl made it onto the ACL poster, I dig into her story and find out exactly why.  This is the daughter of J.J. Abrams - the guy who directed Lost and Mission Impossible 38 and Star Wars 174 and a bunch of other stuff.  So, no big surprise that she got to play Jimmy Kimmel and The Tonight Show after she released her debut EP.

"Unlearn" feels like I'm snooping in the diary of a 16 year old girl who somehow writes in autotune.  The lyrics are so confessional it makes me uncomfortable.  "Stay" is pretty similar - she barely uses any instrumentation, so it's just her voice and extremely vulnerable lyrics right there in your ears.  After about the fifth song, it gets very old - the music is just so spare and her voice is so to the forefront.  I wish she'd just throw one of these low key sad girl song into the mix, but among other types of songs.  Actually makes me think of some of the Billie Eilish tracks, where she slows down the beats and just showcases her voice.  But almost every song here is that note, instead of it being a refreshing break from the pummeling, its just a low ebb the entire time.  And sad ass lyrics.  "you had no problem leavin', now I'm the one to feel it" is a good mission statement for everything here.  "every time we touch it's like the last time, holding onto something when it's not right, tell me to my face that you are all mine, you don't know what I'm feelin'."  So much whispering, and so much of that indie girl voice that sort of semi-whiny, very nasal, very manufactured sounding - I know I've written about that voice before...

No actual albums, just one EP - 2020's minor - and a handful of singles.  "I miss you, I'm sorry" is the top streamer at 47.3 million spins on Spotify.

How did she not get her dad to direct the videos?  What a miss!  Instead, it's just grainy footage of her in her bedroom being sad and wearing multiple hoodies.  Sounds like she's trying to do a Phoebe Bridgers thing in this one.  I'm physically uncomfortable with the video.  Seriously feels like I'm snooping on my daughter's phone and just found some video of one of her buddies rolling around in her bedroom while confessing about love.

Her second-most streamed is "Stay," but I figured I should give you her most recent single to see if we can get some variety here.  This is "Mess it up."  2.4 million streams.

Okay, yeah, that's better.  There is at least a tempo and a beat to it.  For sure the best of these songs.  Maybe she is about to release a new album that combines her sad ass lyrics with real instrumentation and takes the world by storm.

One thing I like?  Most of these songs are pretty short!  The majority of her top ten are under three minutes and the longest is only 3:38.  I will definitely not be going to see this show.  Feels like it is going to be entirely populated by sub-16-year-old girls holding their phones up and crying about an unrequited crush.