Beware the scorching flames—the Daughter from Hell, aka the otherwise lovely Gracie Abrams, we promise, is still making house calls from Dickens’ doorstep with the first single of this new era, ‘Hit the Wall.’ Co-written and produced with Aaron Dessner (who she practically shares joint custody of with her poetically gut-wrenching singer-friend Taylor Swift by now), it’s naturally everything we could expect: angsty, reflective, and all about those moments when you’re quite literally hitting the (metaphorical) wall.
With its music video directed by Renell Medrano serving up surrealist imagery, we’re taking those visuals and moving them to another wall entirely—your bedroom wall—through three inspired designs so you can curate your own Gracie-anointed shrine.
“Inkblot”
In case you’re lucky enough not to have scrolled past the various inkblot ads your TikTok algorithm might be force-feeding you, Gracie does a show-and-tell of what exactly these are in the ‘Hit the Wall’ music video: a whole therapeutic Rorschach test that tattles on your subconscious mind through spilled ink. The specific lyric, “I try to be violent, but I get caught / A room full of doctors and an inkblot,” conjures up mental institution imagery with a side of dealing-with-fame existentialism—her life constantly analyzed and dissected, like we’re the ones clutching our little sketchbooks, jotting down intrusive observations like amateur psychologists.
Forget the bland, blank walls of sterile therapy offices, though. For your bedroom wall, we’re envisioning a Rorschach-Inspired wall of abstract art—whether rendered in soft watercolors or dipped in the cinematic darkness of the music video’s moody palette. You could either buy a few prints to frame in a gallery wall homage to the song, or, if you’re feeling particularly Picasso (or just unhinged enough), paint your own. Bonus points if they reveal something deeply concerning about your psyche when guests tilt their heads and ask what they’re looking at.
“My Fortress Is A Glass Box”
Sneaking right into the first verse—because Gracie’s always been able to spin brilliant imagery no matter the pacing—“I’m afraid that my fortress is a glass box” manifests exactly as you’d imagine: Gracie lying stretched out in one from the very first frame of the music video. Glass boxes carry both promise and peril: they represent transparency, an open book, vulnerability laid bare—but since it’s literally glass, nothing’s concealed and everything can shatter in an instant, just like someone’s fragile state of mind.
“Fortress” is such a loaded word here, too. It’s meant to evoke something majestic, impenetrable—a kingdom. But Gracie’s fortress is the opposite: she’s unable to escape scrutiny, trapped in a fishbowl where everyone can see everything she does (and she can see them watching). Privacy becomes impossible. Protection becomes exposure.
For this bedroom wall, we’re envisioning mirrors scattered across the space—a meta nod to that glass-box vulnerability. Deck out their frames in Gracie-inspired ways: maybe get them signed by the friends you’ve made through her music, or inscribed with all the reasons why she’s your favorite. Turn your wall into a reflective shrine that’s equal parts beautiful and just a little bit haunting—much like the song itself.
“Silence, It’s So Loud”
If Gracie’s tours have proven one thing, it’s that our girl’s always writing, and we’re forever blessed by her ivory keys no matter how haunting the melodies get. ‘Hit the Wall’ is a perfect example of this—it mirrors an unreleased tune she served up during the Milan stop of The Secret of Us Tour called ‘Cold Goodbyes,’ where she mused about the weight of performing while wrestling with her own emotions, painting herself as someone trying to use touring to cope with heartbreak.
Here, in ‘Hit the Wall,’ she brings that theme roaring back with “You’ll bend to my silence, it’s so loud / And then you’ll lose me to the crowd”—meaning the conversation just stops, and she retreats into who she’s always been: a tortured singer telling her story to the audience instead of her muse. The stage becomes both refuge and prison.
For this bedroom wall, we’re playing with soundwave typography. Here’s the concept: choose a couple of Gracie songs you love or specific sections of ‘Hit the Wall’ that you’re obsessed with, then print out their soundwave visualizations. Annotate them with your favorite lyrics or personal notes about what those moments mean to you, frame them up, and arrange them gallery-style on your wall. It’s equal parts music nerd and emotional shrine—exactly the vibe Gracie would appreciate.
Just don’t actually go hitting your beautiful wall now; we need your Gracie-inspired bedroom core to stay intact until her third studio album, Daughter from Hell, drops on July 17th. Once that arrives, you’ll have a whole new collection of existential anthems to choose from for your DIY aesthetic crisis. For now, which inspo speaks to your melodramatic soul? Spill on our socials—Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook—where we promise to validate your feelings.
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