Conan Gray’s "Kid Krow" Is A Spectacle To Behold

By AARIN ARORA

“I just need company now,” pleads Conan Gray on his album opener, “Comfort Crowd,” from his debut album Kid Krow. The YouTuber and singer-songwriter released his debut album this past March and has received lots of love from his fan base. Kid Krow keeps Gray’s themes consistent as he sends listeners on a journey through a high school senior’s last year. With pop hits like “Wish You Were Sober” or heart-wrenching acoustic ballads like “Heather,” Kid Krow gives listeners a magical experience despite being only about half an hour long. 

Debuting right as Covid-19 hit the United States and many other countries, Gray was unable to truly celebrate the album’s release. Nonetheless, the isolation of quarantine was not a foreign concept to this pop powerhouse. “I wrote the whole album out of my bedroom,” said Gray, “and so to release it in a time where all of us were in our bedrooms felt weirdly perfect.”

Here’s a track-by-track breakdown:

Comfort Crowd (★★★★)

The album opens with the moody and relatable “Comfort Crowd.” With this song, Gray takes us on a trip through the feeling of isolation and the yearning for a comfortable group to be in. The song tackles the idea of loneliness and gives listeners the chance to dig deep and be raw. We all feel this way, don’t we, even if we don’t admit it at first? That relatability makes this a wonderful eye-opening first track.

Wish You Were Sober (★★★★★)

“Wish You Were Sober” is a fun burst of electro-pop about having a love interest who is also an alcoholic. Gray describes it as “a weird, bittersweet feeling. On one side you're thinking, yay, they like me and they have feelings for me. But on the other side you're thinking, why can't you tell me this when you're sober? Why can't you tell me this in daylight?’” This is a song that I personally have screamed at the top of my lungs many times. 

Maniac (★★★★)

Continuing with a dark pop theme, Gray’s third studio single “Maniac” discusses some disturbing topics. The song came to him “after getting a midnight drunk sob text from [his] ex… They’d been running all around town telling everyone that I was some freak who wouldn’t leave them alone when in reality, they were the freak, sending strange late-night texts and showing up at my shows unannounced.” In the video for “Maniac,” Conan and actress Jessica Barden take on a bunch of reanimated exes as they come back to life as zombies.

(Online Love) (★★★★)

The first interlude on the song, “(Onlive Love)” reads almost like a Taylor Swift song, as the pop singer turns to acoustic guitar and sings of a long distance relationship. With heart-touching lyrics such as “I can’t help but imagine / what maybe could’ve happened / if you weren’t just an online love,” he captures the longing of long distance love. Gray credits Swift as one of his biggest inspirations. 

“She's my number one above all,” he said. “She's just my songwriting icon, and I'll never understand how she does what she does. She's just amazing.”

Checkmate (★★★★)

Getting back to the dark pop theme, Conan yells his heart out in “Checkmate,” claiming “you may think you won, but checkmate.” This is a song about an ex cheating on Conan with his best friend. “If you wanna treat love like a game,” Gray said, “I'm gonna win it. If you wanna cheat on me with my best friend, I'm gonna trick you into thinking I don't know, then kidnap you both and send you to starve on a deserted island so you can spend the rest of your short lives alone together (just like you wanted). Cheers!,” any idea that is brought to life in the music video for the song. 

The Cut That Always Bleeds (★★★★★)

“Cause if you’re gonna leave, better leave, better do it fast,” Conan says on this track. Slowing things down, he writes a powerfully charged song with heartbreaking lyrics. His inspiration came from getting his heart broken over and over again by the same person, he said. “Even though you know you shouldn’t,” said Gray, “you keep letting them in constantly, [which is] something I believe many listeners can relate to.”

Fight or Flight (★★★★)

The next track, “Fight or Flight” talks about Gray’s instinctive response when his lover admitted there was someone new. Gray captures the feeling of what it’s like when someone starts to fall out of love with you and immortalizes it. He captures the betrayal in lyrics such as “my eyes are welling up / as you admit there’s someone new.”

Affluenza (★★★)

“Affluenza,” the eighth track on the album, discusses growing up in poverty. This electro-pop song describes a conflict with how Conan views money: “They say, ‘Money can’t buy you no love’ / But a diamond cheers you right up.”

(Can We Be Friends?) (★★★)

On his second interlude, using solely an electric guitar, Conan writes an open letter to fans. In this song, Conan asks for someone to be his best friend, any of the listeners, and goes on to proclaim that if anyone messes with them, they also mess with him. “I’ll knock their teeth out,” sings Gray. 

Heather (★★★★★)

Almost like a page ripped out of Kid Krow’s diary, Gray’s song “Heather” became an absolute hit with fans as most seemed to know a “Heather” in their own lives. “When I was in high school, I had a crush on the same one person all four years, but that one person did not love me back,” Gray explained. “Instead, my crush liked a girl named Heather. Heather was gentle and beautiful, inside and out. She was warm like a summer day and had so many friends. She was soft and so easily lovable -- everything I am not.”

Little League (★★★★★)

“Little League” begs for nostalgic experiences. The music video is a compilation of Gray’s home movies, adding a personal touch to a song that is a delight to listen to, especially for those who are graduating and leaving for colleges far away. “We were the dumb, the wild, the free,” Gray sings. “Why did we ever have to leave little league?”

The Story (★★★★★)

The last track on the album, “The Story,” feels the most personal. Straying from his usual pop sound, Gray strips down to acoustics to give his finale a softer touch. The song highlights Gray’s childhood experiences as well as the discovery of his own sexuality. Gray wrote this song about all of the unjust things that he witnessed as he grew up in Texas, but he leaves the listener with some hope, telling us it’s “not the end of the story.”

Overall, Kid Krow is definitely worth a listen. Gray’s raw emotions make him stand out -- he is someone to be vulnerable with. While listening, I get the feeling that although something hurts you, it doesn’t mean you have to let it define you. 

Kid Krow "is me,” said Gray. “I'm not the coolest person, but the album is me accepting the fact I'm weird and I don't need to be anybody else. It's also a chance to encourage others to embrace who they are and be unapologetic about it."