Gracie Abrams has released her highly anticipated new album Good Riddance. Produced by Aaron Dessner of The National, Good Riddance finds Abrams opening up about a recent period of intense transformation, bringing even more honesty and depth to her lyrical storytelling.
To celebrate the arrival of Good Riddance, the 23-year-old artist is also sharing her quietly cathartic new single “I know it won’t work.” Its accompanying video, directed by Julian Klincewicz, is also out now. The video for “I know it won’t work” shifts from stark black-and-white to hyper-saturated color as it alternates between two striking scenes: one that finds Abrams on horseback in a lush and sunlit field, the other following along as she wanders through the surf of the Pacific Ocean. Filmed in the Santa Barbara area, the gorgeously shot visual ultimately reflects the raw and radiant naturalism at the heart of Abrams’s songwriting.
Recorded at Long Pond Studio (the Hudson Valley homebase for Dessner), Good Riddance took shape as Abrams pushed herself toward a sometimes-daunting level of emotional truth in her songwriting.
“Making this album was the most cathartic experience I’ve ever had as a songwriter, and I’m so excited to share it with the world,” says Abrams. “I wrote it while I was going through some of the biggest transitions of my life so far, and the songs came from trying to look at myself very honestly and hold myself accountable. Aaron supported me through all that, while also challenging me in all the ways I’d ever dreamed a creative partner would. He’s been a hero of mine for years, and as our instincts combined it ended up creating a sound that we both really fell in love with.”
“Gracie first came to work with me at Long Pond two years ago and since then we have gathered many times, growing closer and generally writing multiple songs a day together,” says Aaron Dessner. “It’s been one of the most natural and prolific collaborations of my career–the tonality of music I would make each day somehow served as an ideal home for Gracie’s introspective lyricism and sense of melody…she showed such courage allowing herself to be vulnerable and making songs with me that are at turns minimalist and fragile, forceful and cathartic and where the music is allowed to breathe.”