Conan Gray to the forefront of twentysomething music by constantly putting his feelings right up front. Calling an album Superache is about as subtle as hanging a "Feelings Ahead" sign on the cover. The 23-year-old YouTuber turned pop sensation demonstrates on his second album that he is an excellent observer of the human condition by narrating commonplace events and emphasizing the fleeting elements in exchanges that may cause a friendly relationship to turn icy.
A strong mix that gives Gray's songs both sorrow and romance is his lithe voice, which combines the intensity of Shawn Mendes with the softness of Carly Rae Jepsen. Before reducing the boom, Gray describes the highs and lows of his own life in some of Superache's most compelling tracks. On the melancholy "Footnote," Gray recalls instances in which he and a close friend were mistaken for a relationship and makes the following observations: "They assume we're a pair/They gave us some liquor." bone-dry; as the music builds, he begins to sing while crooning, "I'll simply take a footnote in your life/And you might take my body," as a chorus gathers around him. He then begins to speak up about the depth of his love. He doesn't only write about romance, though. God, I have my father's eyes/But my sister's when I weep, he wails on the song's chorus, a terrible illustration of how sorrow can profoundly transform individuals. On the harsh "Family Line," he candidly reveals the misery of growing up in a home lighted up by his father's fury and his mother's denial.
Dan Nigro, a producer, composer, and multi-instrumentalist who has evolved into a type of Gen Z pop whisperer over the past few years, gets another chance to shine on Superache. The majority of Gray's debut full-length, 2020's Kid Krow, was produced by the former lead vocalist of the experimental Long Island emo-soul band As Tall as Lions. He is also best known for helping Olivia Rodrigo transform her post-breakup emotional mess into last year's powerful Sour. In order to make his charges' youthful emotionalism storm across generational divides, Nigro's sonic detailing mashes together touchstones from the Nineties alt-rock gold rush — breezy reggae-lite rhythms on the glowing "Best Friend," submerged backing vocals and piano on the gently heartbroken "Astronomy" — with prominent vocals and the occasional you-are-there detail.
Superache's greatest example of how Nigro's inventive sound design accentuates the agony at the core of Gray's lyrics is "Jigsaw," which shape-shifts from gritted teeth riffing into a grunge-power-pop chorus, then splits into a scream-along bridge and a stuttering guitar solo. The final track on Superache, "The Exit," was co-written by Julia Michaels, a go-to pop architect. It vibrates with self-loathing and jealousy, its descriptions of sadness and envy punctuated by an explosive chorus where Gray's inner monologue briefly pauses before being swept up by a flurry of backing vocalists. Eventually, It's a more than fitting way to end this album, an intense but frequently rewarding examination of sentimentality from one of youth culture's leading miserabilists. Eventually, the song's musical and lyrical chaos tumbles to a halt, the musical equivalent of someone crying until they're physically unable to do so any longer.
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