Gracie Abrams is already framing Daughter from Hell as a deeper emotional step rather than a stylistic reinvention. During a new appearance on The Elvis Duran Show, the singer-songwriter opened up about the mindset behind her upcoming third studio album hours after releasing its lead single, “Hit the Wall.”
“This album feels more existential to me… it’s a bit less reactive,” Abrams explained during the interview. “It doesn’t feel like a big shift for me in terms of the style but it feels like we’re mining deeper.”
The comments arrive as anticipation around Daughter from Hell continues to grow. Abrams officially launched the era on May 14 with “Hit the Wall,” a tense and emotionally exposed collaboration with longtime creative partner Aaron Dessner. Within its first full tracking day, the song debuted at No. 31 on the Daily Global Spotify Chart with 3.238 million streams, becoming one of the strongest streaming openings of her career.
Abrams first began teasing the album months ago. Back in January, she told People she was “beyond ready” for the project to finally belong to listeners after spending extensive time living with the material privately. Since then, cryptic Instagram posts, studio photos, handwritten journals, and snippets featuring Dessner and collaborator Bella Blasko slowly shaped what fans suspected would become a darker and more introspective era.
Dessner himself added even more weight to the rollout earlier this week. In a lengthy Instagram post shared May 11, the producer described Daughter from Hell as “absolutely the most moving and powerful work we have done together.” He revealed that work on the album actually began nearly two years ago during sessions at Electric Lady Studios in New York, the same day Abrams recorded “That’s So True” and “I Told You Things.” According to Dessner, the project continued evolving through sessions at Long Pond Studio, London, and additional recording dates back at Electric Lady.
That evolution follows Abrams’ breakthrough run with The Secret of Us in 2024. The album debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 and produced some of the defining songs of her catalog so far, including “Risk,” “Close to You,” and “I Love You, I’m Sorry.”
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