Well ladies and ladies, I hope you are ready to get your heart ripped out of your chest: that is correct, Conan Gray has released Wishbone Deluxe! Including four brand new songs as well as his single “The Best,” Conan does what he does best—devastate all of us. So, let us go through these five new additions. Also, I have been hearing rumors about a Noah Kahn album dropping—but you’ll have to go over to Madame President Maddy Naughton’s article for that.
“Do I Dare”
Conan Gray kicks off the first new song with “Do I Dare,” a song detailing a wish to reach out to someone you absolutely should not. It is about missing someone who hurt you and who you know would hurt you again, and yet, you miss them just the same. If there is one thing that Conan Gray can do, it is yearn. This song, like all the others, is incredible. All of us have had that one person that we want to text, want to call, when their number is blocked, and Conan captures this feeling perfectly.
“The House That Always Rains”
This song has gone triple platinum on my Spotify and has been on repeat from the second I first listened to it. As you may gather, it is my favorite of the five new songs. A story about love doomed from the start because of homelife, Conan tells a tragic tale of the effect of growing up in an environment not suitable for love. Unlike some of the other songs, this one doesn’t have a melody that will make you uncontrollably sob. In fact, if you completely ignore the lyrics, you could take this for an upbeat song.
“Door”
Conan and Noah must have been cahoots with their titles, but however comedic this coincidence, the song is just as tragic. A ballad style song about never being able to fully shut someone out (even though you know that would be healthiest) creates a sad melody with horrifyingly relatable lyrics. A need for closure that will never come, holding on to scrapbook pieces of a relationship that is long gone. “You were never even good to me, falling for the person you could be.” Conan Gray could write Romeo and Juliet, but I do not think Shakespeare could have written this song. (Sorry Will!)
“Moths”
This song makes the most sense if you listen to the album chronologically. The opening line is “The door is closed, but the window’s open.” This song directly follows “Door,” in which Conan is saying that he needs to “close the door.” Bars, I am telling you. Even if Conan is moving on, there will always be the window. The thing I love about this Deluxe album is that it truly tells the whole story of a toxic relationship and the aftermath of it. In the album itself, he goes through anger, hope, sadness, the whole nine yards. But it was missing what the Deluxe version gave it—the reality of the aftermath. The yearning for someone you miss, the wish that they still need you.
“The Best”
The final closing song, the last-ditch effort to close out this hope. If I just saw you, I would move on. The reflection of memories, the doubt that it was ever based on anything real. This album is definitely my favorite of his (even though I absolutely love Found Heaven as well and will defend it with my life) and it does such an incredible job at capturing the heartbreak of a relationship. “The Best” is such a wonderful song to end on, as it is not just an “I am okay, I am totally over you” kind of song. It is the wish for closure, for moving on.
With that, I leave you to go break your own heart with this album.
I wish you The Best,
Brielle xo