Conan Gray Turns a Grocery Store Visit Into a ‘Full-Blown Lip Sync Dance Break’ in New Video
Conan Gray transforms that feeling that you’re in a music video while listening to your favorite music into an real-life video. On Friday, the pop star released his single “Never Ending Song,” alongside its playful, Eighties-inspired visual that follows him dancing through the aisles of a grocery store.
“I wanted the ‘Never Ending Song’ music video to be the example of what we all wish we could do when our favorite song comes on. You’re snapped into your own little world, where suddenly everything feels like a music video,” Gray said in a press release. “Your walk falls into the beat, your outfit feels a little cooler— you just want to sing along.”
“I’ve had so many moments in life where I’ve been at a grocery store, in school, anywhere in public and just desperately wanted to break into a full blown lip-sync dance break, but couldn’t,” he added. “‘Never Ending Song’ is that kind of song.”
The video sees Gray living that fantasy: he walks into a creepy supermarket at night while wearing a retro star-emblazoned outfit before getting into some high-energy choreography as he walks the aisles of the store. (Gray has been been teasing the video’s setting, Food Heaven Grocery, posting cryptic posters that implied that Conan was hiring for the night shift.)
“You and I/Sacrificed my adolescence/Just to waste my time/On the edges of your life,” he sings. “But we’ve grown too close/Now it can’t amount to nothing/I can hear your voice/In the music on the radio/And it goes/On and on and on.”
The catchy song is Gray’s latest song “disguising my sadness inside of upbeat music.” For the singer, the track is more of a “celebration of emotions” and how he’s growing and changing. He describes “Never Ending Song” as the “beginning of a story.”
“[The song is about] a painful tumultuous relationship that just never seems to die no matter how many times you kill it. The story just drags on and on,” Gray added. “Maybe that’s by design, or maybe you secretly don’t want it to ever end. I’ve always enjoyed disguising my sadness inside of upbeat music.”
“Never Ending Song” is the first taste of new music from Gray since releasing his sophomore LP Superache last summer.
“Writing this album was miserable, and that’s why it ended up being a super-accurate depiction of my life,” he told Rolling Stone about the album that featured songs like “People Watching,” “Astronomy,” and “Memories.” “It felt like scraping my ribs of any last bits of meat.”
