By Shauna Sandhu October 20, 2022
Gracie Abrams, 23 year old indie-pop artist, released her latest song, “Difficult” last Friday, October 7, 2022. As a a diehard Gracie fan since the announcement of This Is What It Feels Like, I adore this new song and was ecstatic at the chance to write a review.
A quick backstory on Gracie, she debuted in 2019 with her single, “Mean it”. She has continued to release singles and EPs for the past 3 years - some of her more popular works include “I Miss You, I’m Sorry”, “Unlearn”, “Mess It Up”, “21”, and “Feels Like”. Her storytelling conveys insecurities about her life, relationships, mental health, and general struggles.
“Difficult” perfectly describes anxiety about self sabotage and commitment issues in a relationship. Its lyrics carefully weave the multiple factors that she deals with while including her frustration with overthinking as she struggles. I’ll mention some of the most meaningful lyrics and interpretations:
Lyrics:
“'Til I feel less attached and bored to death, but listen / It’s no one’s fault, it’s just my terrible condition”
“ I’m just scared of that commitment”
“Was it somethin' that I said that colored you blue?”
These lines paint a picture of her fading feelings but emphasize her acknowledgment of them. It’s highlighted that she knows that it was happening but couldn’t fix it because of her own issues.
Lyrics:
“Spiralin' is miserable / I should probably go back home / Why does that feel difficult, difficult?”
“And stayin' up too late, relivin' bad decisions / I thought eventually, my ranting here would fix it”
“Oh, I hope / I wake up invisible / I'd be someone no one knows”
The overthinking factor is portrayed here along with the lost feelings of frustration when you can’t or don’t know how to fix something you created. In the end it seems like erasing everything is the only escape when you’ve ruined it all.
Speaking of messing up, the background music with the accelerating chorus expresses a build up of emotions similar to Gracie’s other songs, “Mess It Up” and “The Bottom”. After the release of “Difficult”, Gracie also uploaded a picture on her Instagram story which was a page only titled ALBUM. Hopefully us fans will get her debut album soon. Basically, Gracie has a true talent of pairing depressing lyrics with upbeat music, so go stream “Difficult” - linked below!