Christopher Polk/Selection
“I don’t wanna hold secrets and techniques simply to maintain you,” Taylor Swift sang in “Merciless Summer season.” Now, the theme of the price of sustaining a hidden relationship returns in a brand new duet between Gracie Abrams and Swift, “Us” (which is styled “us.”), that premiered on the crack of midnight Friday morning.
The music is the fifth monitor on Abrams’ official sophomore album, titled “The Secret of Us,” which successfully makes “Us” the title monitor, give or take a number of phrases. Swift followers know {that a} monitor 5 on one among her personal albums holds a particular place; does the identical maintain true for Abrams, followers could marvel?
The monitor is produced by their frequent producer, Aaron Dessner, of the Nationwide fame. The finger-picking intro, frequent for one among his productions, provides method a lusher balladic sound, wherein the 2 singers’ voices are sometimes entwined to the purpose that it’s not all the time straightforward to differentiate them within the combine, though Abrams will get the lion’s share of the lead vocals, and Swift will get a number of solo strains afterward.
The breakup theme gained’t come as unfamiliar to followers of both artist’s work, with pointed strains that seemingly might have come from both songwriter’s pen. The primary verse ends: “And if historical past’s clear somebody all the time leads to ruins / And what appeared like destiny turns into what the hell was I doing.”
In a while, a number of specifics enter the lyrical image, which can possible intrigue followers of each singers. “You’re 29 years outdated / So how are you going to be chilly after I open my house? / And if historical past’s clear the flames all the time find yourself in ashes / And what appeared like destiny give it 10 months and also you’ll be previous it.”
The singers poke enjoyable at an ex’s presents of poetry books. “Robert Bly on my nightstand / Items from you, how ironic / The curse or a miracle / Hearse or an oracle / You’re incomparable / Fuck, it was chemical.”
All the pieces comes again to the query: “Surprise in the event you remorse the key of us”… leaving open whether or not it might be the “us” that’s most regrettable, or the truth that the connection was stored as a secret.
Is it fiction, or memoir? That half, presumably, will stay… secret.