After her last album, “Good Riddance,” Abrams has dropped her new lead single “Risk” from her upcoming album titled, “The Secret of Us,” set to release on June 21. 

With this upbeat track, Abrams pursues a new idea—leaping into the deep end and not letting her anxiety get the best of her. In her previous works, such as “Good Riddance” and “This Is What It Feels Like,” she perpetually expresses self-doubt in her songs. “Risk,” though, gives a fresh perspective on her approach to relationships. 

Abrams’ past albums unveiled a melancholy, dreadful meaning and beat to them, but “Risk” shows a different side of Abrams. With co-producer Aaron Dessner, who also produced 17 of Taylor Swift’s songs, they create an upbeat acoustic guitar beat, blurring the lines of folk and pop to create her unique style of unraveling lyrics. 

Regarding the lyrics, Abrams mentioned before that they are meant to express delusion. From the beginning, Abrams sings about finally breaking out of her shell and her will to find out where this new relationship could go or “taking the risk”. But, in the chorus she tells us that she hasn’t even met him yet, meaning she is longing to be with this person. In the second verse, she says, “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” which shows listeners a glimpse into her yearning for something she knows may not be real, but she’s willing to risk it anyway. 

In the music video, Abrams embodies vivacity and chases a male figure who keeps running away from her. Abrams is clearly love-drunk and this repetitive theme in the music video is symbolized by the wine she drinks before going out. As the video comes to a close, she crashes a birthday party and gets kicked out. Despite her pursuit of the mysterious man throughout the video, the birthday party emphasizes the larger meaning of the song which is about finally being able to break free from her self-doubt and anxiety that held her back before.

“Risk” is a unique switch from her past albums and sorrowful lyrics. It manifests feelings of spirit and a beat to groove to. This song may give the audience hope that, they too, can break free from their bubble and allow themselves to live without the unconscious fear of self-sabotage.