Following his EP ‘Sunset Season,’ singer-songwriter Conan Gray has finally released his highly anticipated debut album, titled “Kid Krow.” 

After a career start on YouTube, Gray started moving away from the platform and focusing his time on music, which he released under Republic Records. At only 21 years old, Gray has already found immense success with the under-25 crowd with his pop music focused on themes like growing up and heartbreak. 

“Kid Krow”released on March 20, 2020, a coming-of-age album in tune with the crux of Gray’s musical themes. A heavy nostalgia underlies all 12 songs on the album, a phenomenon for which Gray is well-known, and a phenomenon which Gray has taken from some of his musical inspirations, Lorde in particular. Gray has described the album as “so chaotic neutral” – which it indeed is – and attributes its title to a nickname he was given by his best friend. 

Singles released leading up to the album were “Comfort Crowd,” “Checkmate,” “The Story,” “Maniac” and “Wish You Were Sober.” “Maniac” in particular skyrocketed to popularity on TikTok, cementing itself as one of his most listened to songs on Spotify with its more aggressive approach to lyrics and its catchy beat. 

The album’s strongest songs which were not released as singles include “Affluenza,” “Heather” and “Little League,” and although there are a few more forgettable songs tossed in between, Gray transitions smoothly from song to song, each infused with the same melancholic tone that makes his music so marketable to young people. Already, Gray seems to have found his niche, a consistent sound that he not only manages to deliver again and again, but that also defines a generation of adolescents. 

Although coming-of-age music and stories have always entranced people and are not new developments by any means, Gray has cemented himself firmly as a strong musician with an incredible ability to write and sing about universal themes in an accessible way.