Conan Gray found fame through YouTube, gaining followers back in 2013, covering songs, creating vlogs and Q & A’s. Shifting from this style, Gray began to focus on creating his own music and released his first album “Kid Krow”. Gray’s new album had some highs including his catchy songs and soft voice, however I didn’t like some of the songs and overall I was expecting more.

Although Gray’s album was full of talent and I enjoyed listening to it, it doesn’t live up to the high hopes I had set for it. I don’t say this because I think his album is bad, I think it’s good quality.  Some of the singles released prior to the album like “Comfort Crowd” and “Maniac” set the bar so high and sadly the album just didn’t live up.

“The Story” is one of Gray’s songs that he released before his album that I fell in love with. I was lucky enough to go to his concert back in November and this was the first time I was able to hear this song. Gray performed it onstage before it was released, and I listened to it over and over from the recording on my phone before it was officially released. This song brought a feeling of closeness to his audience and it felt like I was reading his diary. I was hoping that the album was going to give me that same feeling and, with the exception to a few songs, I didn’t feel that way.

One song that really stuck out to me on this album that I re-listened to just because I loved the feeling it gave me was “Little League”. With it’s fast pace tempo, this song gave me the feeling that I was in a coming-of-age movie. The chorus sings “We were the dumb / the wild / the free / We wore our hearts proud on our sleeve / Why did we ever have to leave? / Little League”. These lines alone gave me a nostalgic feeling and I felt like I was in another world and I loved it.

One of the songs I wasn’t drawn towards was “Affluenza”. I didn’t really love the lyrics of it and it just didn’t feel as special as some of the other songs. The tempo was even somewhat slow and the pitch was lower than his normal songs. The lyrics felt repetitive and were very simple, saying “money, money, get me money, money ‘til I’m bloody, bloody”. This may have been Gray’s intention in writing the song, but it just seemed somewhat superficial and it wasn’t my style.

I was very excited for this album and that’s part of the reason I was expecting more that what I got, I think Gray is an amazing artist and will continue to produce quality content in the future. I have been a fan of Gray since his first single “The Other Side” and I will continue to support him throughout his career, and although I didn’t go crazy over this album I’m excited to see what he has coming next.