Miss Nepo Baby (Patreon)

As I've said a thousand times before, I actually listen to all major releases because I like to have my own opinion about them, especially someone who's so directly linked to Taylor, and ESPECIALLY a girlie who I'm going to be subjected to at my Eras tour show in Seattle!!!!!!!!!!!!! Believe me I'd love to be out there clapping along to this shit instead of just going on my bathroom break or sitting there bored out of my fucking mind, but sadly...she's done it again...

To me, the main issue with this record is that she went to Aaron Dessner. Here's the thing - if you're going to make music this completely stripped down, you have to have either very strong vocal delivery or very strong lyricism, or ideally, both. Miss girl has legitimately neither. Her vocals are not bad, but it irritates me that I know she can use her stronger voice and for some reason refuses to in favor of whispering at us for an hour straight. Whisper-singing compounded by bland observational songwriting and then further compounded by blearily morose instrumentals that almost never pick up throughout the course of the record make for....the most boring album of the entire year, to me.

Interestingly I've seen some Gracie fans say that they wish she would make music like she made on her EP (oddly cited repeatedly as the inspiration for Olivia Rodrigo's Driver's License??????), so I listened to it, and I swear when I heard her actually sing instead of whisper I nearly fell out of my chair. Minor is actually a good song and I've had it stuck in my head since I heard it. This is all to say that I have not entirely written her off and will likely go on to attempt to get into her as many times as she releases new material, but Good Riddance in particular left me only with the feeling that if her dad were not JJ Abrams she would not have gotten a record deal. And Aaron Dessner really could not help her here, because frankly, he only made it worse - her being an inspiration for Driver's License makes sense, but Driver's License does a couple things that Good Riddance cannot and will not do, which is a.) be a hit, and b.) showcase vocal and writing ability. Total roast. Apologies to the Gracie girlies.

-Madeline