Conan Gray, an American singer-songwriter, released his new album, Wishbone, on Aug. 15. The album contains bright, upbeat tempos with lyrics that show the truth of what his music is really about: relationships, heartbreak and self-discovery. Wishbone was initially only a project for pleasure since Gray does not often share many details about his personal life.
Gray’s style has an indie pop vibe that generates a mixture of emotions using angsty lyrics and mostly upbeat background music. Wishbone is his fourth studio album, a few of his other albums including Kid Krow and Found heaven.
This album is astonishing; it kicks off with the song Actor. It’s about hiding a relationship and explores how it feels for someone to not acknowledge that anything happened, even when you were actively speaking to one another.
The first few songs are energetic and strong, with anger mixed into portions in each of them. They are all beautifully unique, and they are similar but not to the extent that they all sound the exact same, as is the tendency with some pop music.
The fifth song on this album is My World, my favorite on the album. It talks about not letting others affect you or your actions. For example, Gray sings, “It’s my world and it’s my time, I’ll waste it how I might like.” It is powerful without anger or shouting because it relates to social influences of others and not caring what others think.
Additionally, this song is good because it really shows the amount of conformity in today’s world. I specifically like the lyric mentioned earlier, “It’s my world and it’s my life,” because it sums up the song overall and can be used as a very general statement for the track, and even the album itself, because of the tone.
The lyric “I don’t have you in mind” is a very powerful statement to think about because a lot of people have others in mind when making decisions, and in my eyes, this lyric is Gray saying, “Hey, that’s not cool. Do it for yourself”.
The background music is upbeat and energetic which is a perfect fit for the song, it is the perfect ribbon on the bow. I would give this song a 10/10 for the upbeat tune and the way Gray’s voice blends so well with the music.
In between the fifth and twelfth tracks, there are even more beautiful songs that evoke sadness, anger and indifference. This includes Class Clown, Connell, Caramel and more.
The final track is called Care, and it is another favorite of mine. It has a softer tone to it compared to the previous two songs, and it talks about how Gray still cares about the situation he was in, even though he says he is over it. The song explores Gray feeling like he “(doesn’t) feel like he could love again” in the chorus, which gives the listener more insight into what Gray is thinking in these moments.
I appreciate the repetition of the song’s title in the chorus, and it makes the song feel equally as powerful and angry as the other songs on this album, but without using Gray’s voice as a tool to accentuate that factor.
Overall, this album is a 10/10. Some of the songs on the album don’t entirely fit in with the overall vibe of the album, but I would listen to them on their own. I would recommend this article to anyone who likes pop music or music that evokes emotion.
