Words by Sophia Campanella
Last May, after only a year after releasing his album Found Heaven, Conan Gray announced his fourth studio album, Wishbone. Following up the pop-synth 80’s sound on Found Heaven, Wishbone gives us a more melancholy, acoustic, and soulful sound, which fans know as the classic Conan Gray sound. Wishbone is a true testament to who Conan is as an artist.
Wishbone was the start of a whole new career for Conan. Wishbone became Conan’s top-charting album, peaking at number 3 on the Billboard 200. It was also the top-selling album for 8 weeks. Conan Gray’s “The Wishbone Pajama Show” quickly sold out in every city it was traveling to. Very shortly after “The Wishbone Pajama Show” ended, Conan announced his first worldwide arena tour, the “Wishbone World Tour.”
On February 19th, Conan kicked off his Wishbone World Tour by debuting a new song, “The Best,” live, which quickly became a fan favorite. By the third show of the tour, everyone knew the words. He performed the song at every show, including the last US show in Los Angeles, where he announced Wishbone Deluxe and the release of “The Best.”
In an Instagram post announcing the album, Conan shared his reasons for releasing the deluxe version. In the caption, he said, “Over the past year touring Wishbone, I felt like there were a few last things I wanted to say. Some pages left to turn. Some wishes left to be made. So I hid away in my bedroom, venue basements, hotels, and wrote Wishbone Deluxe.” In the post, he also said, “these songs are not ‘songs that didn’t make the album’. They’re all new songs written after Wishbone, feelings I could only reach in the aftermath of the album’s release. Feelings I couldn’t express in the moment as I wrote Wishbone— because I was still very much in the middle of the storm that inspired it. These songs aren’t missed pages, they’re the next chapter.”
On April 15th, Conan Gray started hyping up the release of Wishbone Deluxe, with an internet scavenger hunt to find the track titles. He left clues in many places, including his Instagram bio, his website, and a Wishbone-themed crossword puzzle that was posted on @coneworldhq. Fans had a lot of fun working together to find all of the clues, and the tracklist was revealed the next day.
“The Best” is one of Conan Gray’s most heartbreaking songs, as he reminisces on a past relationship. He sets the tone for the song in the first lyric, when he says, “It was a bad time, wouldn’t go back / But memories of good times, they really last.” Conan is wearing his emotions on his sleeve on this deluxe album, and it is easy to understand what he is saying. He lets it all go during the bridge, as he sings “Sometimes I wonder, were we ever even friends? / Sometimes I wonder if it really is the end / I wanna watch you while the words come out your mouth / That you don’t miss me like I know you miss me now.”
Wishbone Deluxe includes some of Conan Gray’s most vulnerable and fragile writing he has ever released. Another highly anticipated song from the album, “Door,” explores trying to leave a relationship and the emotional fallout that follows. In the chorus, he sings, “I just need to close this door / Wipe the wine that we spilled off the floor / I just need to close this door / Who do I keep it open for? / Only you, my love / Only you, my love.”
While most of the songs cover themes of relationships and how they end, Wishbone Deluxe also shares other deep themes of growing up and dealing with your past. A personal favorite track of mine, “House That Always Rains,” is about falling in love despite your differences and background. He tells a story of two different people in the first verse, singing “Grew up swift and strange in clouds of Texas rain / Both feet in the dirt and laughing soft in church / You’re born city slick, with both sharp-shoulders chipped / Always more to prove to boys in private school.” After setting up the background for these two people, the chorus continues the story on, when Conan sings, “Oh I you in the doorframe of the house that always rains / Come and find me, ‘cause they’re shouting in my house that always shakes / Don’t that explain why we’re afraid of love?” The bridge of the song tells us how the story, or why the relationship, ends, when he sings, “If I could do one thing over again / I would be less of a lover to you, and more of a friend / I would’ve got it in my head that it’s not about me / While I was scared of being left / You were scared of being seen, truly seen.”
Conan has a lot of exciting things coming to celebrate the release of Wishbone Deluxe, including the continuation of his Wishbone World Tour across the UK, Australia, and New Zealand. He is also doing festival appearances in the UK and Canada. You can view all of Conan Gray’s upcoming tour dates here.
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