Culture

Conan Gray announces “vulnerable” sophomore album Superache

By Zoya Raza-Sheikh

12th April 2022

American Singer-songwriter Conan Gray is making his return with his sophomore record Superache.

A breakout star, Gray released his debut, Kid Krow to universal praise. The album, released in 2020, included hit singles Checkmate, Comfort Crowd and Maniac.

The singer has given fans an insight into what to expect from the new album. “It was a miserable and terrifying album to write, but it ended up becoming an album that felt like a very true representation of myself,” he said in a press release.

“Superache is definitely a vulnerable album, but not without its sarcasm. It’s a story of heartbreak, friends, yearning, mourning, and grieving parts of your past you ignored for years.”

He adds, “I’m aware that being a young adult holds levels of extreme feelings that I’ll look back on 10 years from now and laugh at, but I wanted to accept the histrionic nature of growing up on this album.”

Gray also debunked the meaning behind his sophomore record in a new interview. “A superache is something that hurts you so much, it lingers with you for years after,” he told Rolling Stone.

“It’s something that can only be healed through years of dramatic mourning, self-sabotage, songwriting, crying to your friends. It’s a super ache.”

Gray has emerged as a rising Gen Z star with an aptitude for tapping into emotional depths that resonate with his listeners. His smash hit, People Watching, achieved exactly this. The song has now amassed over 104 million streams online.

In 2020, the artist explained his creative process of narrowing in on personal moments and emotional reactions to events around him.

“When I’m writing a song, I’m like, ‘Oh no, no one is going to relate to this. This is just such a niche thing that happened to me,’” he told People in 2020. “But the reality of the human experience is that we’re all way more similar than we think we are. A lot of us have really similar problems and really similar challenges that we face.”

Gray’s follow-up record Superache will be released on 24 June via Republic Records.

Earlier this year,  Gray unveiled a brand-new single titled Jigsaw via Republic Records. The song marked his first release of new music this year.

Speaking on the song, the singer-songwriter broke down its meaning in a statement: “I wrote jigsaw originally as a bit of a diary entry rant for myself. I’d spent my entire life contorting myself and changing everything I used to be in order to make everybody happy. I was so used to trying to please everyone that, when it came to love, I started to do the same.

“I thought maybe if I dress a certain way, act a certain way, do my hair the way you’ll like, then maybe you’ll finally love me. It didn’t work, obviously. By the end of it all it, I ended up looking in the mirror and barely recognizing my rearranged and twisted reflection. I hope that jigsaw is a bit of a warning to people. That destroying yourself to win somebody’s love will only leave you empty on the other side. Because in the end, that person won’t love you, just the version of you that you made for them. Instead choose to become somebody that you love.”