Behind the Meaning of “us.” by Gracie Abrams Feat. Taylor Swift

Gracie Abrams walked away from her Eras Tour opening gig with more than just some new fans. She got Taylor Swift herself to hop in the studio with her for “us.”, a dizzying mid-tempo track that finds a middle ground between Abrams and Swift’s brands of pop. Dissect the song with us, below.

[RELATED: Gracie Abrams on How Taylor Swift Has Inspired Her Songwriting]

Behind the Meaning of “us.” by Gracie Abrams Feat. Taylor Swift

I know you know

It felt just like a joke

I show, you don’t

And now we’re talkin’

I know your ghost

Abrams hasn’t been shy about extending some praise Swift’s way. “I was always a huge fan of Taylor my entire childhood,” Abrams once told American Songwriter. “She used to talk about how frequently she would journal and it felt obvious to me that was a massive tool.” Needless to say, this collaboration was begging to happen.

“us.” feels markedly Swiftian. A large contributing factor to that comes from Abrams and Swift’s mutual producer, Aaron Dessner. The National member employs the same glittering melodies that can be found pervasively on Swift’s folklore in this song.

On top of the production of this song being an intersection between both artists’ sound, the lyrical content is much the same. Breakup songs aren’t unfamiliar in either artists’ discography. If history’s clear, someone always ends up in ruins / And what seemed like fate becomes “What the hell was I doing,” the pre-chorus reads, presenting a relationship gone awry.

The narrative in the song is prose-y. The duo meanders through the pitfalls of a relationship like two poets with a never-ending inkwell. Not a single word is wasted in there berate of a former lover.

I know you know

It felt like somethin’ old

It felt like somethin’ holy, like souls bleedin’

So, it fеlt like what I’ve known

You’re twеnty-nine years old

So how can you be cold when I open my home?

In the lines above (which more or less surmise the situation at hand), Abrams and Swift sing about their relationship feeling fated. In the end, however, the other person grew cold. Both artists inject all the emotion such a situation would bring up into their performance.

Check out the song, below.

(Photo by Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images for The Recording Academy)