Today, I look at how nice it is see such an openly gay concept album in Conan Gray’s Wishbone.
This is “This Album Is Good,” a feature where I’ll try to spotlight a good relatively recent album.
I’m not going to act like there haven’t been a number of notable gay pop songs. Little Richard’s “Tutti Frutti” is about gay sex, Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s “Relax” is about delaying your orgasm while having gay sex, Troye Sivan’s whole catalog is very gay, but it’s still notable to me (in a good way) that Conan Gray’s Wishbone, a whole concept album about a failed romance with a closeted guy, hit #3 on the album charts.
“Vodka Cranberry” is the biggest standout song on the album (all three music videos from the album so far, “This Song,” “Vodka Cranberry,” and “Caramel” feature Gray with the same actor, Corey Fogelmanis, playing the closeted guy who he has failed romance with)…
But I am partial to “The Actor,” which is a great look at the problems with dating a closeted guy (presumably an actor, since that makes sense that Gray would be mixing with people from the world of entertainment)…
Nobody saw us in the hotel lobby
And nobody saw us with your sweatshirt on me
And nobody saw us leaving bruises on our necks
In a summer spent in a coat check
Nobody wondered where you went all April
Like kicking feet under the whole damn world’s table
When my friends discovered when you left me in July
No, I didn’t cry, kept the lie alive
But the church bells won’t stop ringing
For an undead wedding day
And you’ve spent the summer drinking
While I spent it being erased
And I tried to hide the feeling
But it just won’t go away
Let’s pretend nothing happened, I agree
But you’re a much better actor than me
Those are some awesomely dramatic lyrics right there.
The whole album has a nice mixture of strong melodies and powerful, personal lyrics.
If there’s a recent or upcoming album that you’re excited about that you want me to make a point of listening to, you can drop me a line at brian@poprefs.com and I’ll see if I can give it a listen!
