By: Kathie Chu
Conan Gray’s new album is actually so good . His lyrics are phenomenal, and the melodies are really pretty. “Family Line,” “Yours,” “Footnote,” “The Exit,” and “Movies” can make anyone cry like a toddler. Conan himself has said in multiple interviews that he lied on this album because he “hasn’t been in a relationship,” but he must be lying. The songs just feel so honest. Conan must be the best writer and liar in the world to come up with lyrics like “In my head, we’re dancing in the dark/ In my head, we kiss under the stars/ But we know that’s not what we’re doing/’Cause, baby, this ain’t like the movies.”
Songs like “Family Line,” “Best Friend,” “Astronomy,” “Jigsaw,” and “Summer Child” are not directly about romance, but they hit just as hard, if not harder than the songs about love.
“Family Line” is about living in an abusive home and accepting that he will never be completely happy withhis family. “Jigsaw” is similar; it is about Conan’s parents and how he thinks he can never make them happy. Frustration and anger with parents is a theme that Gen Z is talking about more and more, and Conan describes these emotions perfectly. “Best Friend” and “Astronomy” are both about his childhood best friend. “Best Friend” is about the joy of platonic soulmates and loving someone more than anyone else, describing a marriage pact, and going shopping at 2 AM. “Astronomy” is about drifting away from the person that you thought you would be with forever. Conan has clarified that the person he was talking about was his best friend, and they hadn’t actually drifted apart, he was just scared they had.
Conan captures all of these feelings and painful moments perfectly and accurately.
Conan also writes songs about romance. In “Disaster,” the lyrics and music video describe how he loses chances just by overthinking. Conan has written about the pain of love and pining (what word did you mean here) more than any other aspect of romance, and he does it perfectly. You can clearly hear the pain and sorrow in his voice when he is singing, “So I’ll stop being pretentious and loathing our friendship/ You taught me a lesson, that feelings are reckless/ It’s just like the novels, side characters end up alone.” Conan’s songs feel honest and emotional, and at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter if he’s lying or not.
“Superache” is absolutely beautiful and wonderful because in the words of Conan himself, “I love being dramatic because why would you ever deal with any emotion in a logical way when you have the option of absolutely losing your mind?”