This Is What It Feels Like

## ***This Is What It Feels Like***Extended play by Gracie Abrams

### Producer(s)

Aaron Dessner, Blake Slatkin, Carter Lang, Gracie Abrams, Joel Little & Omer Fedi

## Singles

1. "Feels Like"
Released: October 1, 2021
2. "Rockland"
Released: October 22, 2021
3. "Alright"
Released: November 10, 2021

***This Is What It Feels Like*** is Gracie Abrams Second commercial Project , released on November 12, 2021, through Interscope Records. Abrams co-wrote all the tracks, serving as a producer on "Feels Like", with production mainly handled by Blake Slatkin, Aaron Dessner and Joel Little. *This Is What It Feels Like* is primarily a pop record with influences of bedroom pop and indie pop.

## Music and Lyrics

The first track "Feels Like" felt like a happy ending of some sorts , Which is something you’d hope for at the end of an album; after a turmoil of emotions, resolution at last. That’s where you could use a relief from the missed connections and misconnections.

The next track "Rockland" was a song created with Aaron Dessner , it falls right into heartbreak. She’s left her ex but she can’t move on. And what do you do when you feel that way, when you decide to let go, but the feelings still linger?  She doesn’t pretend she hasn’t caused the pain she has. She visits their neighborhood but doesn’t want them to see her. I get the sense from this song that it’s not even that she wants to get back together.

"For Real This Time" is a song that talks about running away from a toxic relationship. Abrams says that "i've packed my bags in the middle of the night , a thousand times i've got up to say goodbye i could be wrong but i think that i'm for real this time". Which makes us understand that it isnt the 1st time she's thought of this.

Camden is a track about insecurity and hopelessness. Gracie says “I never said it but I know that I/ Can’t picture anything past twenty-five”, which makes our heart hurt a little. This track was also created with Aaron Dessner

In “The Bottom”, she keeps warning her lover to leave, telling them it’s a mistake to let her in. And revisiting Rockland now is like listening to a friend, who to a stranger is doing the right thing of owning up to her faults. But you know that it’s more than that; she’s being too hard on herself.

This feeling of uncertainty and helplessness emerges recurrently in the album. “Hard to Sleep” is filled with the crushing weight of bearing it all alone. “Augusta” is an expression of confusion, of feeling lost, with Abrams’ whisper-like vocals complementing the loneliness travelling from the previous song into this one. The album is also interspersed with musings on growing older.

In “Wishful Thinking”, she’s lamenting that the person she’s addressing hasn’t grown up. This is immediately followed by “Older”, where she turns to the less pleasant things that growing older has brought: small talk and holding back from each other. The beginning of the album seems to have had me fooled. I thought it would be about exploring one’s relationship with others. In "Better" she tells us that she hopes her ex is better now , after giving up on the relationship

The last song, “Alright”, doesn’t really resolve the anxieties. In fact, it accentuates the sense of distress pulsating throughout the album. It ends on this chorus:

“I don’t know if I’ll be alright (Alright)

What will it take to make this good?

With this, the album reaches the reverse of what I thought might happen. It leaves you feeling uncertain, lost, and awaiting hope. And hope? That was there right at the beginning, when there was someone who could have told her that it gets better. The first song plays like a memory, allowing me to be lost in the comfort of happy beginnings. This is not about anguish being brushed away. This is not about a false resolutions, or a sympathy happy ending. *This Is What It Feels Like.*

## Singles

The lead single, "Feels Like", was released on October 1, 2021.

The second single, "Rockland", was released on October 22, 2021.

The third single, "Alright", was released on November 10, 2021.

The fourth single, "The Bottom", was released on November 12, 2021.