hey so can we talk about/analyse the lyrics that hit the hardest from conan gray’s wishbone deluxe? anyway, here’s my list:
1. from ’house that always rains’
always more to prove to boys in private schools
Firstly, boys in private schools are usually weathier than the average person. In my experience, weathier people are also more close-minded and rude. So what I think is that the narrator is trying to prove to the ’boys in private schools’ that he’s not queer in addition to avoid bullying.
come and find me, ’cause they’re shouting in the house that always shakes
don’t that explain why we’re afraid of love?
When I first listened to this I thought the second line was about how the world views LGBTQ+ people. Sometimes we can’t be ourselves because of the politics or laws. Now when I take a look to the line before, it tells a whole different story. We are afraid of love because nowadays violence in relationships is more normalised than before. This is one of the lyrics from the deluxe I’ve crashed out to the most.
while I was scared of being left
you were scared of being seen, truly seen
In my opinion, it’s a reference to queer relationships. The other person is still in the closet while the other is already out which makes it hard for both to be themselves. The narrator fears he’s going to be broken up with because the other person isn’t truly themself.
2. from ’door’
i just need to close this door
who i keep it open for?
Most of the lyrics of the song are just storytelling so I won’t take a look to the obvious. Or an obvious to me. However these lines are the ones that caught my eye. The narrator still feels the need to have the option to let the person from the past back to his life. Then he questions himself, ’who do I keep it open for?’. There’s a conflict between what his heart and mind says.
3. from ’moths’
the door is closed
but the window’s open
A great way to move from the previous song to this one. There’s still the same conflict except now the narrator has mostly abandoned the thought that the person from his past is coming back to him. Still, there is a little hope left for that, hence ’the window’s open’.
i loved a version of you that you’re washing away
The other person is trying to change themself for the majority’s liking after they broke up. I’ve seen this happen to some people and it’s always sad to see someone not living to their truth.
and every letter, every word that we don’t speak
holds us together, i will always be your friend
The narrator clearly analysed the other person’s gestures and words because he misses ’every word that they don’t speak’ or they had some special gestures to signal words to each other. The pause before the word ’friend’ is sung tells me that the narrator didn’t want to be just friends but something more. The whole bridge is excellent and has me crashing out every time I hear it.
4. from ’do i dare?’
you’re still the first name i’d like to reach to tell
’cause only you’d find it funny
When I first heard this, I thought this is so beautiful (and also relatable) and still do. The whole song is about daring to contact the other person and I feel like this is why.
do i dare?
Firstly I thought this was going to be about daring to be themselves. Turns out, it’s not. Well, you can always interpret.
5. from ’the best’
we could make peace with it, not have to sleep with it
haunting me all of the time
The narrator hopes that he could make things right with the other person. It disturbs him that they haven’t talked it all out even when their thing ended at least a year ago (’did all of this past year mean anything?’).
i still remember that night you left
closed the door and you stood by thw window waiting
like you were gonna say something
but you just walked away
This is one of the lyrics that has put me into thinking about everything for some reason. I don’t think there’s anything to analyse but I just wanted to point this lyric out.
sometimes i wonder were we ever even friends?
sometimes i wonder if it really is the end
After all that has happened, the narrator still questions if ’they were ever even friends’ has to say something about the relationship. One has to guess what happened but I am not doing it now and here because it could be anything. However, the second line is probably something most of us relate to. The thing is, we never know ’what is the end’ and that’s why we keep our hopes up.
anyway, these are my foremost thoughts 😜 didn’t plan on this being so professional but what can you do when your finnish teacher made you analyse poems from the 1860s at 8 in the morning...
