Gracie Abrams Shares Voice Notes From Upcoming ‘Daughter From Hell’ Tracks, Including One With an Alternate Melody

Gracie Abrams is bringing us heaven in celebrating her new album, Daughter From Hell.

The project marks the pop singer-songwriter’s first full-length since her Billboard 200 No. 2-debuting The Secret of Us in 2023. Ahead of her third studio set’s release, Abrams unveiled two preliminary singles led by “Hit the Wall,” which reached the top 40 on the Billboard Hot 100, and “Look at My Life.” So far, the rest of the album’s 16 tracks are yet-to-be released — at least, not as studio recordings.

To kick off release week, Abrams hosted a free show at the Bowery Ballroom in Lower Manhattan on Tuesday (July 14) where a few hundred lucky Capital One cardholders got the opportunity to hear a handful of new songs live for the first time, plus some fan favorites (see the full setlist below). In addition to performing her prerelease singles, she sang six brand new songs from the project, including “Imaginary Friend,” which she recently revealed was co-written by her boyfriend, Paul Mescal.

A few hours before, Abrams sat down backstage to exclusively share early snippets of two other songs off the Aaron Dessner-produced project and chat about how they came to be in the Billboard original short form series, Voice Memo Demo.

Scrolling through the voice memos on her caseless silver iPhone, she eventually pulled up the original “verse-melody-pass” for what is now track 8 on the album, “Sober.” In the recording, we hear Abrams scratchily humming a soft melody a cappella, which she shared was inspired by an instrumental Dessner sent over.

“That melody isn’t even in the song anymore,” she quipped a few seconds into playing us the recording, which she said turned into a song that reminds her of something that could live on her first studio album, Good Riddance.

“Anyway, I love this song,” she continued. “It’s a song about in time, or in another life — this yearning quality. I thought about the girls who might dig a yearn.”

She also shared a similar very early recording of “Mews,” where she hums atop simple piano chords. After hitting pause on the memo, Abrams explained how the song was inspired by the London studio of the same name that it was recorded in.

“It sort of is like the most ballad-y ballad I’ve ever written, I think,” she said. “There’s something that feels classic about it that I loved right away.” She revealed the Macedonian Orchestra plays strings on the track, highlighting its build to the bridge.

She continued: “It sits in a place vocally that’s a bit uncharted for me, so stretching in that capacity was exciting.”

Daughter From Hell is out Friday (July 17).

Gracie Abrams: Live from the Bowery Ballroom in celebration of Daughter from Hell Setlist

Live debuts are bolded below.