Conan Gray’s third studio album, Found Heaven, came out in April of 2024. His first single from the album, "Never Ending Song," was a great choice to tease this 70s/80s-inspired album, especially since Gray appears in the music video with big, curly hair and wearing a leather jacket customized to show one of the visuals for the album. This album was written in a far more upbeat style than the Heather singers first and second albums. Combined with his storytelling and heart-wrenching lyricism, it makes for an album that’s fun, and some of the songs can be made for mainstream radio, but at the same time, they have an underlying message for those with a keen ear for lyrics.
Track 1: Found Heaven
The album opens with the title track, Found Heaven, and Gray is known for talking about sexuality through his music, though he’s never exclusively put a label on his own sexuality. For the most part, he has kept his personal life and relationships private. This song very clearly appears to be a sort of queer anthem for his friends in the LGBTQ+ community, who can relate to this story as they are unfortunately familiar with being rejected by their loved ones. It’s very clear that Conan has had this experience before in his life. The song starts off with an almost gospel choir sound with the lyrics, “No God above us, Can we repent the sin? No soul is innocent, everybody wants to love.” Then this synth beat kicks in, and Gray is really amazing at creating an atmosphere within the instrumental and the story he tells in the song. This song really speaks to the LGBTQ+ youth listening to it. A lyric that sticks out to me in part is, “Don’t be scared, little child, you’re no demon.” It’s no secret that there are people in our world who believe that there is something wrong with being gay, lesbian, trans, etc. I believe that Conan is speaking to the people whose families spew hate and call it following religion. Essentially, he’s saying that there is nothing wrong with you, and I also think he is speaking to his younger self as well.
Track 2: Never Ending Song
As stated before, this is one of the first singles that Conan released off of this album to prepare his fans for the new sound he was experimenting with. This was refreshing, since his second album, Superache, was filled with power ballads and some very personal songs to Gray. This song talks about a relationship that Conan has been in with someone, and how it’s on the brink of ending, but things keep reminding him of this person. As he says in the song, he calls them and apologizes for calling, but he saw their face in a magazine. He then goes on to say how he can feel them pulling away, but they’ve been together and are so closely bonded that their relationship can’t be for nothing. So, it continues, as he puts it in the chorus: “On and on and on, like a never-ending song.” It is a very upbeat song, almost made to be put on a party playlist, and the message can easily be lost in the synths and the guitar riffs. But for those who pay more attention to the lyrics than the instrumental, they can make out the story within the album. As with all of Gray’s songs, there’s always a message in between the lines of catchy beats and melodies.
Track 3: Fainted Love
Conan Gray has said multiple times that this song is his favorite off of the album. It talks about accepting the fact that the person he loves isn’t ready for anything serious, and taking whatever love this person will give him. He keeps saying that “it’s fine,” “it’s enough,” and almost pushing his own emotions to the side for the sake of having this person’s attention and savoring it while he has it. The lyrics that portray this the best are, “White lies from the passenger seat, Say you’ll love me for life, Say you’ll never leave, Kiss me ‘til I almost believe, tonight.” Gray is very good at painting a picture for the listener. He slows down the production, pulling back all the synths and drum beats while these lyrics are being sung. His voice isn’t loud, and it feels like we are listening in on this hushed conversation between them in the car. Gray wants this person to tell him everything he wants to hear and to convince him of it. Then, the beat kicks back in with the chorus, and it’s almost like being snapped back into reality.
Track 4: Lonely Dancers
This song tells the story of two people who find themselves alone, either from being broken up with or actively being cheated on. So, instead of wallowing in self-pity, the two of them decide to distract themselves by getting lost in each other for the night. Gray sings, “We’re lonely dancers, There’s no need to hide, I know the answer, baby, Dance with me so we don’t cry.” It almost feels like the ending of the relationship that Gray has been singing about throughout the course of this album, and possibly the beginning of another. Though there isn’t much sustenance to pull from this song in particular, the lyrics are very simple, and it does feel like a song that could stand on its own without the need for the rest of the songs on the album.
Track 5: Alley Rose
Alley Rose is one of my personal favorites off of the album, and I think this one really showcases Conan’s songwriting ability. He starts off the song by picking someone up from the corner store, and they clearly aren’t well, but they kiss him anyway, almost desperately. So much of what I love about the way Conan writes his songs and constructs his albums is the way he tells the story of what he’s going through. For example, in the second verse, he sings, “I’ve waited all year at your feet, Like maybe you’d love me,” which refers back to Fainted Love. This leads the listener to believe that he is singing about the same person from that song. Another thing I love about this song is how beautifully devastating the lyrics are in the bridge and how well he is able to convey his anger and passion for this person through it. Also relating back to his previous notions of love, through the lyrics “But I swore necks were made for bruising, I swore lips were made for lies, and I thought if you’d ever leave me, That I’d be the reason why,” which just shows that Gray has seen poor examples of love and still has some trauma from those experiences. But he goes on to turn the narrative into how this person has shown him how love is meant to be. It does feel as though the artist is desperately trying to cling to this person by asking “Where’d you go?” and guessing the location of a bar aptly named Alley Rose.
Track 6: The Final Fight
In this song, Conan makes it feel as though the relationship ended abruptly, like there was no conversation—it just ended. This makes me think of a story that he told on the Zach Sang Show. To briefly describe it, he was saying how he was on a flight to see the person he was dating at the time, and just as he is about to turn his phone off, he gets a text from them and is essentially broken up with over text. So, he ends up going to visit a friend and staying with them, drowning in his sorrows, and then writing a song that is on the album. He doesn’t reveal which song that was, but I believe it’s this one. The lyrics that led me to think that are, “But all I wanted was the final fight, and all I needed was to make it right.” I am the kind of person that wants things to be resolved and to be told why something isn’t working, and I believe that Conan is like that as well. So, being broken up with so abruptly, and not even given a reason, I can see why it led him to write a song as a way to resolve it and try to make sense of it for himself.
Track 7: Miss You
I believe this song is the resolution to the relationship referenced all throughout this album. It’s sort of him saying that he’s leaving and he’s done with the relationship, but with all breakups, he’s going through that period of missing the relationship. He’s also asking himself in the chorus, “Is it wrong now to decide?” It almost feels like he’s been holding onto this feeling of missing this other person, but feeling like he doesn’t deserve to miss him. Since Gray is the one that left, he refers to that in the lyrics as well: “I don’t know why, I’ll be gone because you love me.”
Track 8: Bourgeoisieses
Bourgeoisie is a French word meaning “middle class,” and essentially, throughout the song, Gray sings about how he wants to experience that life. He talks about how they sort of live their lives in ignorance and how they live very privileged lives. The artist is basically describing how he wishes that he could live in ignorance, and the lyric that portrays that would be, “I’m a low-class guy, that sounds pretty nice.” In my opinion, this felt very much like a filler song. It does have a nice beat and is very catchy, but when I think of Conan Gray, this isn’t one of the songs that instantly pops into my head or one that I would recommend a friend to listen to.
Track 9: Forever With Me
This song is another one of my favorites off the album, although it is very much a breakup song, and I think a song to signify the end of the relationship. I believe this song was written after having processed it all, and Gray sees it as growth instead of something painful. I think that’s a very beautiful and mature way to think of a breakup: to think that at one point in his life he did love this person, but to also know that it’s over and take what he learned from that relationship into the next one. I also like that he recognizes that this wasn’t just the other person’s fault and that he’s not the innocent person in this relationship. He admits that he also had some part in their breaking up, but even still, he sings, “I ain’t sorry, I wouldn’t change a thing.” This sort of falls into the rock-type ballad genre, I believe. Even though it does start off with just him and the piano, it grows into this big production with the layering harmonies and the addition of other instruments that just add to the crescendo at the bridge, and then at the end, everything sort of fades out, and it’s just his vocals and the piano again.
Track 10: Eye Of The Night
This song is very reminiscent of Thriller by Michael Jackson; it kind of has that feeling of paranoia you feel when listening to it, and it has that same type of vibe. I also think the beat is meant to sort of mimic anxiety, and it is one of those songs that could be put on a Halloween playlist and flow nicely alongside the others. I think, for Conan, he wrote this song because the memory of his past relationship and his ex was haunting him, like he couldn’t get away from him or the memories no matter how hard he tried to. I know for a fact that I have many repressed memories from my life that sometimes come back to haunt me at the most random times, and it’s this feeling of wanting to get away. In the song, he sings, “I grab the keys and scramble to the door, But then I, I hear your heartbeat bleedin’ through the floor.” This actually reminds me a lot of Edgar Allan Poe’s The Tell-Tale Heart story, when the main character hears the heartbeat of a dead man through the floorboards of his house. I don’t know if Gray took inspiration from that book, but it was just something I thought of while listening back to that line.
Track 11: Boys and Girls
This song makes a lot of references to artists like David Bowie at the beginning, and I’m not sure if this was intentional or not, but the way Gray sings the chorus is very reminiscent of the band Duran Duran from their song Girls on Film. This song is another upbeat electro-pop song, but it’s another song where, if you don’t pay attention to the lyrics, then the meaning can just go over your head. Essentially, Gray is singing about longing for someone, but it seems like so does everyone else. He’s essentially begging this person to choose him in the sea of faces, and I can relate to that, and so can a lot of people. I feel like we’ve all had a crush or infatuation with someone who is very much wanted by a lot of people, and we are kind of just wanting them to choose us. It does end up making someone feel defeated in a way, by seeking someone’s attention and not receiving it. I think Gray depicts that perfectly in the first pre-chorus, where he sings, “He wants ya, He wants ya, You don’t even see me, She wants ya, She wants ya, There’s no point competing, He wants ya, She wants ya, like everyone else in your life.”
Track 12: Killing Me
This song was another single released for this album, and I believe it is about the same person that is in Boys and Girls. Gray sings about how this person is always coming around and looking for love, essentially craving attention while they are chasing someone else. Gray lets him in because he is in a vulnerable position since he just got out of a relationship, and I almost feel like this is one of those awful rebound situations. It feels like he is just clinging on to any affection that he is receiving from this person and trying to find comfort in their presence, but ultimately, it’s just hurting him more because he knows that they don’t want him. I think he portrays that very well with the line, “And though I am cryin’ and bleedin’ and barely breathin’, I can’t let go of your heart.” I think Gray is really great at portraying desperation and how he might have felt like that at one point, and this is another song that just starts with his vocals and the piano, but the listener can almost tell that it’s going to build.
Track 13: Winner
The final track of the album is probably the most gut-wrenching because it is about Gray’s father and their estranged relationship. Conan has been very open both online, through his “Draw My Life” video on his YouTube channel, and through his previous album with the songs Jigsaw and Family Line, about how his relationship with his father wasn’t the best and that he struggled a lot in the early years of his childhood. I think this song is him talking about how he’s cut ties with his father because it mentions him leaving at fourteen and how he didn’t plan on leaving, but it’s obvious that he had to. Then, I’m sure once Gray had turned out to be successful, his father must have reached out at some point to have a connection, but probably not with him, but with the singer. The line that really struck me was, “That all you ever wanted was to fight, I was only trying to survive your chaos, Well look at how it’s paid off.” I’m sure this song was very therapeutic for Conan to write and sing, and it definitely translates through the music. It’s one of those songs that’s just a gut punch, and you can’t help but listen to the lyrics and take in the message that Gray is trying to convey.
My final thoughts on this album as a whole are that it is a very well-thought-out record with a solid story throughout. There are many songs that can stand on their own without any context, and even having listened through the album in order, it does have a very cohesive sound all the way through. I expect no less from Conan Gray, as he has been doing this for years now, and it’s clear that he is very methodical in the way he organizes his albums and the story he wants to tell with each one. I am very much looking forward to more music from Gray, and I hope this blog has inspired you to take a listen to some of his other works.
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