This Is What It Feels Like

Released on November 12, 2021 through Interscope Records, This Is What It Feels Like is Gracie Abrams' second EP and a significant step forward from her debut, Minor (2020). Spanning twelve tracks and co-produced by Aaron Dessner, Joel Little, and Blake Slatkin, the EP was written largely during COVID-19 isolation and documents Abrams' mental health recovery across different emotional stages.^[1]

Abrams described the project as a time capsule in song-form, a home to all of the different stages she was at during the previous year, encompassing open letters, moments of raw insecurity, and the purgatory of feeling unmoored.^[2] Where her debut EP centered on relationships, this collection turned inward, offering what Abrams called more of an introduction to who she is as an individual, rather than in relation to another person.

Critics situated the EP within the bedroom pop tradition, with Stereogum noting its expensive-sounding production and The Young Folks praising Abrams' willingness to reflect honestly on herself, including the discomfiting acknowledgment that she sometimes played a role in her own unhappiness.^[3][4] The EP peaked at number 14 on the US Heatseekers Albums chart and drew comparisons to Phoebe Bridgers and Taylor Swift's Folklore for its quietly confessional tone.

The closing track, "Alright," serves as the EP's emotional summation: a gentle, unflinching account of intrusive thoughts and unresolved anxiety that refuses any false comfort or tidy conclusion.