Conan Gray, proclaimed the “ascendant king of sad boy pop” by “i-D” and the “prince of sad boy pop” by “Teen Vogue,” is the next up-and-coming artist to keep an eye on. Gray started as a YouTuber and released his first song “The Other Side,” a melancholy song about getting to a better place, back in 2016. Since then, he has released five singles and an EP on Spotify.
His 2018 EP, “Sunset Season” is my favorite EP of all time. It captures the feelings of being a teenager, dreaming of leaving home for bigger and brighter things while stuck in a small town full of cookie-cutter houses and people.
“Generation Why” was the first song released from this EP, promoted with teasers and a music video on his YouTube channel. Currently, the music video has earned almost nine million views. This was the first track I heard from Gray, and it easily made me fall in love with his voice and style. The dreamlike intro vocals and catchy beat make the depressing lyrics almost happy, adding up to a song that encapsulates the experience of being lost in life. Lorde was a big influence for Gray and his admiration can be seen clearly in this track, as it has a similar vibe to much of her first album, “Pure Heroine.” He completely destroys his generation in this song, claiming that they are “the helpless, selfish, one of a kind, millenium kids that all wanna die.” He takes insults commonly thrown at this generation by adults and turns them into a timeless, relatable song.
My favorite song by Gray also comes from “Sunset Season.” “Crush Culture” is one of those songs that I cannot stop thinking about–or listening to. His heartbreaking lyrics don’t make me want to cry, but instead listen with my eyes closed and scream the words. He articulates the feeling of pining after someone, of being bothered by happy couples, of the annoyance of gossip. Gray really earns the title of “the prince of sad boy pop” with this song. “Crush Culture” is at its core a sad song, but it becomes one to dance to through the production of the track. The beat drop in the chorus has the same effect as a beat drop in an EDM song, despite the chorus starting with “crush culture makes me wanna spill my guts out.” In the bridge, the production changes from a clear beat to soft vocals and even softer background vocals that sound like they’re coming from far away, like they’re weaving in and out in an almost echo-like fashion. This choice helps make the beat drop even more effective when the chorus comes back.
In 2019, he picked up the tempo of his music. He released “The King,” an upbeat song with upbeat lyrics to match. “The King” is a track about feeling cheated by someone who has a partner and dates around, and feeling that they belong with you. It’s angry like “You Belong With Me” by Taylor Swift, another one of his influences. The chorus includes lyrics like “I’m the only one that has made you fall in love, so just shut up!” Gray expresses his frustrations about a person he is clearly pining after, a person who, despite his best efforts, does not see him in a romantic light.
In June 2019, Gray released another angry track, “Checkmate.” Like “The King,” this track calls out a person who has wronged Gray by dating other people. This is Gray’s revenge song, his healing process for the hurt he felt. In the bridge of the song, Gray sings, “can’t play me like your pawn, set fire to your lawn, you’re gonna wish you never harmed me.” This song isn’t a pity party, but rather a song acknowledging the betrayal, screaming his pain and realizing that he is stronger than whoever hurt him. This song is the end of the pity party, the part where he can finally move on. As the concluding line of the track states, “you may think you’re winning this heartbreak, but you ain’t gonna win it ‘cause checkmate.”
Most recently, Gray dropped “Comfort Crowd,” the single that he named his tour after. He slows things back down with this track, which sounds like a cry for help. With this song, he describes how alone he feels, how he needs someone, anyone, to be there for him. The opening line is by far his most powerful one: “This hurt that I’m holding’s getting heavy, but I’ma keep a smile on my shoulders ’til I’m sweaty.” “Comfort Crowd” is pure sorrow, even lacking the typical upbeat production usually found alongside Gray’s dark lyrics. It also parallels “The Other Side”–“Comfort Crowd” lyrics include “Yeah, I could spend a lifetime sitting here talking, and even if I cry all over your body you don’t really mind.” Meanwhile, “The Other Side” (which he just added to Spotify just a few months ago despite releasing it in 2016) contains the lyrics “You keep on crying, babe, I don’t mind, I’ll keep on staring at the clock tryna pass time.”
Gray begins his second tour soon. Catch him at the House of Blues on Nov. 13. I know I’ll be there!
