Conan Gray Has Many Many Feelings — And Manages Them Quite Impressively on ‘Superache’

Calling an album Superache is about as subtle as slapping a “Feelings Ahead” sign on its cover

but Conan Gray reached the vanguard of twentysomething pop by always putting his emotions right up front

On his second album, the 23-year-old YouTuber turned pop star reveals himself to be an astute observer of the human condition

recounting everyday scenes and highlighting those split-second details in interactions that can make a warm rapport between two people transform into permafrost.

Gray has a lithe voice that simultaneously possesses the intensity of Shawn Mendes and the sweetness of Carly Rae Jepsen

a potent combination that adds both anguish and romanticism to his music

Some of the most gripping songs on Superache find Gray almost dispassionately describing his own life’s ups and downs before lowering the boom

On the longing “Footnote,” Gray recounts moments when he and someone he’s close to were mistaken for a couple

his observations (“They think we’re a couple/They bought us some booze”) bone-dry

as the music swells, he opens up about the depth of his love, crooning, “I’ll just take a footnote in your life/And you could take my body,”

as a choir amasses around him. His subject matter isn’t limited to romance, either. On the stark “Family Line,”

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