“Sometimes I wonder if it really is the end?” Turns out, it isn’t the end of the Wishbone universe. Conan Gray’s melancholy, number one top selling album is making new rounds with five additional songs. Wishbone is by far Gray’s most vulnerable album and the new tracks on Wishbone Deluxe dive further into his heartbreak and deepen the themes of yearning and despair Gray worked hard to build with the original album.
The wistful first deluxe track is “Do I Dare,” in which Gray toggles between the temptation of returning to his past relationship and the better choice of moving forward due to how hurt he was. He states “And if I befriend you, will I crash in magnificent blur?/Fall to the curb, rotting alone, like when you left me first/It took another year to repair what I lost.” The chorus repeats “Do I dare,” showing the conflict between what Gray longs for and what he knows is better for himself.
Gray transitions to a more upbeat tempo in his next track, “House That Always Rains,” which depicts two people from different backgrounds trying to connect with each other: “Grew up swift and strange in clouds of Texas rain … You’re born city slick, with both sharp shoulders chipped.” They struggle to fully bond because they are both scared due to their pasts. In the bridge of the song, Gray reflects on their relationship, saying, “I would be less of a lover to you and more of a friend/I would’ve got it in my head that it’s not about me/While I was scared of being left you were scared of being seen, truly seen.” Gray confronts that while he had his own fears in the relationship, he could have been more supportive towards his partner but at the time he couldn’t see past his own problems, and it is inferred that his partner couldn’t do so either.
“Door” is the pensive third track in which Gray uses the metaphor of a door to symbolize the tie between holding on to his past relationship and letting it go. He longs for the idealized version of his ex partner, keeping the “door” open for them: “And I still don’t know how, when you left me, you just went and closed this door… I just need to close this door, who do I keep it open for? Only you my love.” Gray knows that his relationship was unhealthy and that he needs to move on, but he still keeps the “door” open in hopes that his partner will eventually come back because he wants the romanticized relationship back.
In “Moths,” Gray characterizes himself as a light and his ex partner as a moth, saying “I’ll leave the light on, and I’ll let the moths in,” trying to make himself appeal to his ex partner. He ignores his wants and feelings, willing to give up things important to him in order to be accepted by his ex partner. He connects “Moths” to the previous song “Door” by stating, “The door is closed but the window’s open.” He has since given in to the fact that he will not get his relationship back how it was and it would be unhealthy to do so, but he still holds on to the idea that he can have his ex partner in his life somehow, leaving his “window” open and the “light” on.
“The Best” is the final deluxe track of Gray’s album and takes on a more resentful tone. Gray is dwelling on his past relationship, reflecting and questioning whether his relationship deserves to be looked back on as he has been doing in the past few tracks. While he is still open to a connection, he has shifted being more bothered by his past partner’s actions. This conflict of feelings is described when Gray says: “Sometimes I wonder were we ever even friends?/Sometimes I wonder if it really is the end?” Gray has started to become more accepting of the fact his relationship is over, and while he is still longing he is starting to come to his senses and realize that he was mistreated.
The original album, written while Gray was on tour for his 2024 album Found Heaven, features a trilogy of music videos, “This Song” detailing the whirlwind relationship between the characters Wilson, played by Gray, and Brando, played by actor Corey Fogelmanis. Wilson and Brando’s fight is portrayed in “Vodka Cranberry” and their disheveled reconciliation happens in “Caramel.” Along with this storyline, the album features Gray’s experiences with a past relationship and his emotions regarding it. After the success of Wishbone, Gray’s fans were excited to see more of his work in the Wishbone universe as was he.
“Wishbone is a love story,” Gray said for VMAN magazine. “It feels like the story of my life. I wanted to live in that world as long as possible. I’ll know when it’s time to let go of “Wishbone,” but not yet.”
Gray’s album Wishbone tells a story of heartbreak and reflection, and the five deluxe tracks fit right in like the finishing pieces of a puzzle. These songs further develop the narrative that Gray has worked to build with his music videos and tour visuals with their imagery and connections to each other and previous songs on the album.
