Crises loom across singer-songwriter Gracie Abrams’<\/a> third album, \u201cDaughter from Hell,\u201d out Friday.<\/p>\n A knife \u2014 stabbed in the heart or stuck in her side \u2014 appears as a repeated motif. \u201cHell\u201d takes on different forms; it’s an insult thrown in \u201cSober\u201d and a place she breaks away from in the title track. The project finds Abrams in a darker place than her previous two records. But by employing a broader array of instruments and production styles, the resulting 16 tracks live up to the bigger arenas she now fills, even if many of the songs feel like a return to her introspective form.<\/p>\n Electric guitar opens the title track, where Abrams’ layered voice longs for the traits of her mother: \u201cAnd I want your patience \/ I want your grace \/ I want your sugar,\u201d she sings. Aaron Dessner,<\/a> a collaborator on Abrams’ previous projects, cowrites and produces across the album. Here, his touch is felt in the guitar riffs that build toward the song’s midpoint, and the shaker and tambourine that fill them out.<\/p>\n The pair flex across the tracks; Abrams’ poetic language only sometimes tripping on itself. On the acoustic guitar and piano-set ballad \u201cDeath Wish,\u201d she reflects on a fractured relationship. \u201cHow long will you give me?\u201d she pleads before the pace picks up. “‘Til you twist the knife with a smile while you kill me?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe Knife,\u201d a highlight, immediately follows as Abrams examines her own affinity for recklessness. Her voice, occasionally lowered to a bedroom-pop whisper (fans of her early work will be drawn to the lilting \u201cGood Reason\u201d and the sweet and synthy \u201cAfflictions\u201d), has strengthened since her restrained debut, 2023’s \u201cGood Riddance.\u201d<\/a> As the track builds \u2014 starting as a stripped back piano ballad, before turning itself over to drums, electric guitar and a 21-piece orchestra \u2014 so does her confidence. The influence of Phoebe Bridgers<\/a> is felt in that second-half surge.<\/p>\n The anxious \u201cLook at My Life\u201d (co-produced by Dan Nigro) carries some of the same fast-paced energy of her song \u201cRisk<\/a>.\u201d This time the focus is on her mental health, and the disassociation required of her only-growing fame, rather than the more universal thrill of a new crush.<\/p>\n