“A drop for the tears, a star for the magic. Nothing turned out how you imagined, but you Found Heaven.” Coneheads, the self-appointed name of Conan Gray’s fanbase, gathered together with their phones and AirPods to celebrate the release of Gray’s third studio album, “Found Heaven.” Heavily inspired by the legends of the ‘80s, Gray uses 808 beats, synthesizers, and his low register to sing about his first real heartbreak. The effect is an ambitious 80s pop album which stands as a testament to Gray’s talent.
In an interview with Rolling Stone, Gray said, “I wanted to write a song that encapsulated that feeling of… this person who never treats you right, but you still go back to them…” The song he’s talking about is “Fainted Love,” where lines like “guess you take all the pain you think you deserve / won’t sleep cause it’s easy to hurt tonight,” tell the story of a love which is barely better than nothing. “I want your fainted love, that’s enough, your fainted love.”
Stylistically, the album varies from his first two in a number of significant ways. Departing from ballad-style songs like “Heather,” which catapulted him into stardom, Gray finds himself in the land of danceable tunes which beg to be played way too loudly.
Another defining characteristic in Gray’s discography is his use of fictional tales of woe, which past his third album are replaced by very real tales of pain and abandonment. “I’d been dumped and I was in London. I was supposed to be there with this person that I was seeing and then I wasn’t,” he told Rolling Stone.
If you’re a fan of the sound of David Bowie, Freddie Mercury, and Elton John, “Found Heaven” is a wonderful mix of Gen Z angst and the colorful, flashy wonder of the legends whom America loves.
