NEW YORK – On paper, American pop star Gracie Abrams has had a speed-run through the entertainment industrial complex.

She grew up in Los Angeles, the daughter of Hollywood director-producer J.J. Abrams and Katie McGrath, CEOs of film and television production company Bad Robot Productions.

She came of age as an artist in and around an emerging pop creative class that included producer Blake Slatkin, The Kid Laroi and Tate McRae. Her best friend, Audrey Hobert, is a long-time collaborator who has become an emerging pop star in her own right.

And Abrams’ witty and confessional whisper-pop has earned her opening slots for Taylor Swift and Olivia Rodrigo, the current lodestars of big-tent singer-songwriters.

And yet all of those things, viewed through a different lens, could be perceived as a burden – an invitation to heavy scrutiny of an artist still early in her career development. Such associations and expectations have made Abrams, 26, sometimes reticent to share too much about certain parts of her life, especially as her star rises with viral songs turned radio hits (That’s So True and I Love You, I’m Sorry), a Grammy-nominated duet with Swift (Us) and a nomination for best new artist, all in 2024.

But something has shifted on her third album, Daughter From Hell, out July 17. She confronts, with more directness, where she came from and the disorienting place where she has ended up. Hit The Wall, the album’s first single, is about being a burden – “I’m not a problem you can solve,” she sings – while the follow-up, Look At My Life, dares to express at least a passing dissatisfaction with the trappings of fame. On the title track, Abrams reckons with her relationship with her mother, and the ways in which she now regards her charmed teenage years warily.

“Just how it is in any household, I think there’s so much going down all the time, you’re sometimes fighting to find your own lane, and for me that included a total rejection of being around my family,” said Abrams, the middle child between two brothers. “I would sometimes put myself in positions that were actually un...