After scoring a hit and a Grammy nomination with her wispy, breakup-consumed debut album, Good Riddance (Billboard 200 number 52, U.K. Top Three), Gracie Abrams rehired the record's co-writer and producer, Aaron Dessner of the National, for the follow-up. While The Secret of Us finds her still vulnerable and singing with an audible frown, her delivery is stronger, arrangements are more sweeping and robust, and at least some of the songs are trying to look forward. One of the headlines here is a collaboration with Taylor Swift, the yearning "us." (written by Abrams, Swift, and Dessner and produced by all three with Jack Antonoff). Although Swift is not all that conspicuous in her feature spot, it became Abrams' first U.S. Top 40 hit, while the album itself catapulted her into the U.S. Top Three; The Secret of Us hit number one in Australia and the U.K. ~ Marcy Donelson