In 2024, you’d be forgiven for considering that the very last thing that music wants proper now could be a 20-something pop star searching for reinvention by plunging themselves right into a world of drained 80s synths and vocoders.
Someway, on his third studio album Discovered Heaven, Conan Grey finds originality and a massively endearing authenticity on one in all this 12 months’s most bold pop data.
The massively in style Californian has made a reputation for himself because of a robust two albums filled with melodramatic love songs and guitar-led ballads of bed room teen angst. That’s all nonetheless ever-present on Discovered Heaven, but it surely’s delivered with a swashbuckling manufacturing match to attain a Hollywood film.
Grey may be very conscious of his reinvention and has spoken of Discovered Heaven as a hyper-conscious try and throw a curveball at his tens of millions of followers. The entire file’s 13 tracks decide to a brand new sound, there’s no easy-win ‘Maniac’ or ‘Heather’ 2.0 to be seen throughout its 36 minutes.
The pop star slides into first gear on album opener ‘Discovered Heaven’ as he urges himself to confide in love over Queen and David Bowie-esque harmonies. Seconds later, it’s clear he’s taken that message on board as he places pedal to the gasoline on single ‘By no means Ending Music’.
That observe boasts one in all pop’s greatest choruses of 2023 and it’s extra moments like that that are the place Discovered Heaven is at its strongest. Grey’s vocals soar over the bubblegum manufacturing of ‘Lonely Dancers’ and there’s a relentlessness to ‘Killing Me’ that makes its heartbreak really feel so good.
Conan Grey – Lonely Dancers (Official Music Video)
Elsewhere, ‘Bourgeoisieses’ is an apparent spotlight on the file that wasn’t heard earlier than launch. The star harkens again to the category critique of ‘Affluenza’ on the tongue-in-cheek flick which is destined for viral success. “Mother and Dad bought my again, however I don’t want that, I want a Maserati,” the songwriter winks.
Working with pop masterminds Max Martin and Greg Kurstin, it will have been simple for Grey to fill the album with these boombox bangers however the star has all the time had a penchant for a ballad.
On ‘Perpetually With Me’ and ‘The Closing Battle’ he stays true to his newfound 80s sound however permits himself a extra sparse manufacturing to revel within the break-up that has formed Discovered Heaven. ‘Alley Rose’ sees Grey stroll round London having been dumped by way of a textual content acquired on an airport runway and ‘Winner’ closes the file with an epilogue that crescendoes right into a remaining flurry of guitar-heaven goodness.
By the point Discovered Heaven‘s 36 minutes have drawn to an in depth, it’s clear that Conan Grey has marked himself as one in all pop’s most fascinating songwriters. It’s a compelling pay attention and a daring triumph.
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