Like all good things that end in Australia, Gracie Abrams truly said “good riddance” to the Good Riddance Tour in a collection of Instagram posts. It had its closing night in Melbourne during the first month of this year. Simply not a shoey salute either—in which case, even with some honorary Aussies on the THP team, we’re begging for a more sanitary tradition. What replaced it was a poetic declaration curated from harsh blues and purples. They slinked into close-up shots of fans’ faces and blooming flowers thrown on stage from final standing ovations. There’s even a bow-adorned sign with the capitalized question, “Where do we go now if this is home?” Well, we’ve got an answer! Pack your suitcases, Gracelanders. Our new home has yellow shading and will be located in 18 stopovers across America.
Yes, our new home is The Secret Of Us Tour, celebrating Gracie’s 13-track (can we expect any less when there’s a feature from the numerology bestie herself, Taylor Swift?) sophomore studio album. And while we’re not quite ready to dig out the red-string board to piece together all the vital clues to the one date where Taylor may just get on stage to perform the track stealing the last word of the album’s name, ‘us.,’ there is someone else joining her! Yep, ROLE MODEL! And if they’re sprouting any inspirational quotes for us, they’ll be unchaperoned spiels about being the life of the party.
OneRepublic Had A Song About This
The similarities between the series of Good Riddance Tour wrapping up shots and this new adventure are the secrets spilled. We’re not just saying the ones rustling to life between piano keys, but the thoughts playing in fans’ heads when they heard their favorite songs. We all have things left untold, but live music spaces are usually safe grounds for momentarily letting them out. So, in an ode to the tour name and Gracie’s new era, we’ve merged some song pairings, each including one of hers and one of ROLE MODEL’s, to form a secret. Can you keep it?
‘Where do we go now?’ & ‘forever&more’
A cry-dancing beat slinks into the fourth track of Gracie’s Good Riddance in the form of ‘Where do we go now?’ Well, we go to ROLE MODEL’s ‘forever&more,’ of course. What’s brilliant about mashing up these two tracks is that they’re two sides of a forlorn love coin. Gracie’s fighting the slowly dying flame she’s having for her partner, knowing she’s no longer invested but not quite sure how to let someone down. Like the title, ROLE MODEL is invested like repeating the last four words of “forever” in an endless cycle, sort of ever, until the end of time.
The secret here is that one has fallen out of love, and the other clearly hasn’t. However, there is more under the surface! We could spin such lyrics from ‘forever&more,’ like “We made it to winter” and even “You’ll meet her soon” in relation to showing her off to his friends, as a way of him slowly uncovering the truth. He doesn’t want to, still in his love bubble. It’s just gradually popping.
‘I miss you, I’m sorry’ & ‘Oh, Gemini’
‘I miss you, I’m sorry’ has that Gracie stamp of authenticity. What’s interesting about this track is the dichotomy. How she’s feeling is so evident in the title. But as her Swifty bestie once said, songs are also messages in a bottle. You hope the person on the other side can shuffle through the melodies to figure out it’s about them. Yet, there’s still an air of doubt because they aren’t saying all this directly to the person. In this case, Gracie’s ego is so bruised by the breakup. As she says in the above track, “And I’d be losin’ my mind / If you lived in your writin’,” as she’s doing on both occasions.
If spoken up, ‘Oh, Gemini,’ would greet her! This song is more about the seconds before the breakup than the aftermath itself and knowing that your toxicity is the problem. The repetition of “Remember my name” and the bridge work perfectly with the theme of missing someone. The bridge also cleverly repeats itself. If he says everything twice, then maybe her memory will stay longer.
‘Risk’ & ‘notice me’
This is The Secret Of Us Tour, so you know it will house some secrets! One of which has already been unearthed in ‘Risk.’ It’s essentially about those spluttering words and clammy hands—the pedestal effect, if you will. So charismatically quirky, the fast-paced guitar matches the franticness of Gracie’s heartbeat and the off-kilter inflections in her voice. This crush may’ve made her slightly deranged (she’s side-eying us on the album art for even using that word), but that means she’s our support leader when we’re experiencing the same feeling! And as soon as we admit it’s a collective feeling to have, in steps ROLE MODEL. Their ‘notice me’ matches Gracie’s energy 10/10. And no, the lower cases don’t fool anyone.
Who Can Keep A Secret? Not Us!
Our index fingers will fall to the middle of our lips in a unified “shhh” if these mashups ever come to life on The Secret Of Us Tour. But they’re not the only best stories kept under the radar, are they? If you could stitch together one song from Gracie (double points if you can see into the future by making it one from her upcoming album) and another from ROLE MODEL to subtly tell your own story, what would they be? Let us know on our Twitter @thehoneypop! We pinky promise we’re good secret keepers.
However, one we’re excitedly screeching about to the masses is the 4-1-1 on getting tickets! There’s no room for whispers here. We want you to claim your seats! So seated registration has been happening since Tuesday, the 4th, but the general sale begins on Friday, 10 a.m. local time. Just be prompted through her website! There are two VIP packages for those who want to get ‘Close To You.’ (It is not within Gracie’s hugging reach, as there’s no soundcheck this era. But you can keep cool perks such as an embroidered item you know, close to you! That is, unless you want one of us to borrow it 🫶.)
TO LEARN MORE ABOUT GRACIE ABRAMS:
FACEBOOK | INSTAGRAM | TIKTOK | TWITTER | WEBSITE | YOUTUBE
TO LEARN MORE ABOUT ROLE MODEL:
FACEBOOK | INSTAGRAM | TIKTOK | TWITTER | WEBSITE | YOUTUBE
