Singer-songwriter Gracie Abrams’s second studio album, The Secret of Us, has just dropped, and two Vogue editors who happened to be stuck on an Air France flight together took down their reactions to it in real time. The conclusion? They love nepo babies and, as fellow Gen Z’ers, they can relate to most of Abrams’s lyrics about love and friends.
[Editor’s note: To ensure that they had the best possible listening experience, both staffers waited until they reached their hotel rooms to listen to the Taylor Swift feature.]
“Close to You”
Irene Kim: Gracie fans have been waiting so long for this song, and it was so worth it.
Florence O’Connor: This song came out, and I already knew all the words. I didn’t know that I knew all the words!
Kim: This song is something only a teenage girl could write, in that moment and time.
O’Connor: “I want to be close to you” is how I felt about you, Irene, before I worked at Vogue. I wanted to be close to the cool girl my age on Vogue Runway. (I’m famously a huge Instagram stalker, and Irene is famously private on Instagram.)
Kim: She’s one of my favorite nepo babies (along with Romy Mars). Maybe my favorite genre of music is nepo-baby music?
O’Connor: I think my favorite genre of human is nepo baby. Hailey Bieber, Sofia Richie…Gracie!
“Risk”
O’Connor: Sometimes the only way I can get out of bed is by putting on “Risk,” and I instantly jump out and start dancing.
Kim: It’s very Taylor Swift “Mean” era, with Gracie playing the guitar on the backing track. Aaron Dessner also produced it, which is so exciting.
O’Connor: OMG, you just reminded me there is a Taylor feature on this album. I’m not mentally prepared.
O’Connor: “God, I’m actually invested / Think I really want this / I’m not even kidding / No, I’m actually invested / Haven’t even met yet / Wish that I was kidding, I’m not, and I hate it” perfectly encapsulates how it feels to have romantic feelings for a man in 2024.
Kim: Seriously—this is also how I feel about Nicholas Galitzine, whom I’ve never met and probably never will!
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O’Connor: Hey, never say never, Irene!
“Tough Love”
O’Connor: The energy of this song is different for Gracie—a little bit more upbeat—and I love it!
Kim: The lyrics “I waste my 20s on random men / Not one is cooler than my friends” is the realest thing she has ever said. As a fellow 20-something-year-old, I, too, enjoy my friends way more than any of the guys out there in the New York City dating scene!
O’Connor: “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.” Big old oof to whomever this is about! This almost matches Taylor Swift’s “Red” (10-minute version) level of hatred, and I stand firmly in support.
“Good Luck Charlie”
Kim: Did she name this song after the Disney Channel show Good Luck Charlie, which starred one of the most underrated Disney stars ever, Bridgit Mendler? I mean, this was a show I watched growing up, which would also fit into Gracie’s age group. [Editor’s note: Irene is 25; Gracie is 24.]
O’Connor: I can already picture the cast of Bridgerton season four slow dancing to an acoustic version of this song. Instantly love it.
Kim: She references Audrey, her best friend, in the song, like how Swift did with her best friend Abigail in “Fifteen.” Whether or not this song is about Audrey’s real story, I love the storytelling Abrams does in her writing. Again, this type of music is something you can only really write at a certain period of time, when you are still angsty!
O’Connor: Audrey is also referenced in the song “21”: “Audrey said she saw you out past twelve o’clock.” Audrey is clearly a real one—she’s been Gracie’s best friend long enough to make it into two songs. Iconic. You’re the Audrey to my Gracie, Irene…except neither of us can sing.
“Us” featuring Taylor Swift
Kim: This is the song we Swifties have been waiting for. I love this Abrams x Swift collaboration!! This is what dreams are made of for pop fans like Florence and me!!!!
O’Connor: Turns out that The Secret of Us is just the magic of Taylor Swift and Gracie Abrams harmonizing for 4 minutes 3 seconds.
Kim: Is this Swift’s first feature ever? I need someone to fact-check this because I am currently too jet-lagged and sleepy to figure it out. If so, Gracie Abrams, you will always be famous. I mean, this is major. To open for the biggest artist of our generation on her tour last year and then get her as a feature on your album is just incredible. And their voices are just so angelic together. It’s a match made in heaven.
O’Connor: I think it is? I am also too sleepy and jet-lagged to check, but I want to live in a world where Taylor’s first feature is on 24-year-old Gracie Abrams’s song, so I choose to believe it. (Please, no one correct us—we do not care for the truth in this moment.)
Kim: When I inevitably die, I would like the chorus of Gracie and Taylor’s voices to be the final thing I hear.
O’Connor: Irene, you are going to live forever in my heart <3
