Gracie Abrams first started releasing music in late 2019, with her first extended play (EP), “minor,” being released in July 2020 and her second EP, “This Is What It Feels Like,” being released in November 2021. Her two EPs were her biggest successes of her career, until now, with the release of her debut album, “Good Riddance,” on February 24.

   The album is perfection.

   The three singles previewed for the album were “Difficult,” “Where do we go now?” and “Amelie.” I adored all three of them, but my favorite is “Where do we go now?”. The melody of the song is really similar to “Difficult,” but the lyrics were more beautifully written in my opinion. The song is about hurting someone because of the narrator’s mental illness and the narrator wanting to try again but being scared for it. My favorite lyrics of the song are “ ‘Cause now I’m half of myself here without you / You’re the best in my life and I lost you.”

   The whole album develops a theme of not being the best person in a relationship and regretting it, as well as a theme of mental illness having a huge impact on the narrator’s life and the people around them. Songs like “Best” and “I know it won’t work” express regret for hurting someone in a relationship and missing them but knowing it’s for the better, while songs like “Difficult,” “This is what the drugs are for,” and “Right now” are about spiraling because of mental health and missing someone who was hurt from it. 

   Abrams captured these themes well and discussed on social media and in interviews that she wrote about these topics from her own experiences, giving an authentic feel to each of the lyrics.

   Abrams outdid herself with this debut, and I, along with the rest of the world, cannot wait to see where she continues to go in her career.