Gracie Abrams is raising hell on her third studio album, which takes fans along with her as she crashes out, breaks down, contemplates the past and wrestles with the dreary state of the world, while also — despite everything else — finding a bit of domestic stability along the way.
Daughter From Hell dropped on Friday (July 17), two years after sophomore album The Secret of Us made her a breakout superstar by reaching No. 2 on the Billboard 200 with hits such as Billboard Hot 100 top 10 entry “That’s So True” and the Grammy-nominated Taylor Swift duet, “Us.” In many ways, the new record harkens back to the themes and musical sensibilities of both her 2024 LP and her debut album, 2023’s Good Riddance, with guitar and piano intermittently anchoring the songs as she touches on blame, complex breakups and unrequited love.
But there’s also an entirely new dimension to Abrams that she displays on her third effort, even if it doesn’t smack you in the face most of the time. She’s more interested than ever in playing with song structure and mixing new synth colors into her usual blend of instruments, while the title track even finds her uncharacteristically singing over punchy, distorted electric guitar. Her vocals sound stronger and more intentional than ever before, with the sonic highlights of many of the songs being her own ethereal harmonies stacked powerfully on top of each other.
And while there are a few catchy moments here and there, Daughter From Hell is arguably less pop than The Secret of Us, which might come as a bit of a surprise. With Abrams building her audience so impressively during her last album era, she in theory would have been perfectly poised to start reaching for more chart dominance with an album of splashier, statement-making pop anthems instead. Knowing that, it’s clear that Abrams is far more interested writing songs for herself and her fans, and that this was the album she truly wanted to make this time around.
In honor of the long-awaited release of Daughter From Hell, keep reading to see Billboard‘s ranking of all 16 songs on the album below.