The Genius Top Songs chart has been dominated lately by Taylor Swift and songs related to the Drake-Kendrick rap war, but that doesn’t mean the occasional new pop song can’t rise through the ranks. Sitting at No. 3 this morning is “Risk,” the lead single off The Secret Of Us, the forthcoming sophomore album by rising singer-songwriter Gracie Abrams.
As the title suggests, “Risk” is a song about taking a chance on new love, though there’s more to the story than initially meets the eye. Abrams produced the song with Aaron Dessner—he of The National and Taylor Swift fame—and wrote it with help from her best friend, Audrey Hobert.
Abrams told Spin that the song was inspired by “the mania before you actually even know someone, where you get it all sick and twisted in your head and feel like you have a fever and can’t control your body and mind.” That’s a bit of a spoiler for what we learn in the chorus, but that’s jumping ahead. In the first verse, over briskly strummed acoustic guitar, Abrams boldly pursues a guy who’s just broken up with his girlfriend.
Look at me now
Said I wouldn’t do it, but I hunted you down
Know you had a girl, but it didn’t work out
Know you bought a house, but you had to move out, and
I’m not proud
The pre-chorus is pure late-night longing. Her heart and mind are racing. There’s no way she’s falling back asleep.
And I wake up in the middle of the night
With the light on, and I feel like I could die
’Cause you’re not here, and it don’t feel right
’Cause you’re not here
In the chorus, Abrams drops the plot twist: She doesn’t actually know this person. Taking a step back from the love-drunk swooning of the pre-chorus, she acknowledges that it’s strange for her to be feeling this way, and she jokes to herself that it’ll probably end badly.
God, I’m actually invested
Haven’t even met him
Watch this be the wrong thing, classic
But hey, it might not end badly, and that’s what she reminds herself on the second part of the chorus.
God, I’m jumpin’ in the deep end
It’s more fun to swim in
Heard the risk is drowning, but I’m gonna take it
In the second verse, Abrams continues lightly chiding herself for living in this fantasy world. She then gives in to fantasy and imagines a scenario whereby this guy comes to pick her up for a date and gets tongue-tied in a way she finds endearing.
In my head, you’re in the car, and you’re comin’ to me
And you get to my door, and you can’t even speak
But I think that it’s sweet, yeah, I think that you’re sweet
In the “Risk” music video, directed by Audrey Hobert, Abrams does some late-night obsessing, drinks a ton of wine, and basically ruins some guy named Doug’s birthday party.
The Secret Of Us is due out June 21. In the meantime, you can read all the lyrics to “Risk” on Genius now.
