Gnash’s New Album Pays Tribute to Love and Heartbreak

25-year old, Gnash has been known for his widely relatable songs about young love and heartbreak. Ever since his collaboration, “i hate u, i love u” with Olivia O’Brien, the two artists have been skyrocketed to fame. His long-awaited debut album, “we” was released this Friday.

This 13 song album is made up of several songs that he’d released as singles previously such as “i hate u, i love u” featuring Olivia O’Brien, “dear insecurity” featuring Ben Abraham, and one of his biggest hits and fan favourites, “the broken hearts club.”

Gnash is unique because he uses a vocal style that is a mix of rapping and singing. He also tends to use an acoustic guitar paired with electronic drum sounds such pulsing bass drums and snaps.

The transition between each song on the album is almost seamless, which is something that I like very much. He begins the album by reading a short poem that he wrote titled, “happily never after.” In the poem, he dreams of being a confident person until he met a person who “crushed the feelings that [he] felt” before he is awoken by his alarm clock.

His songs are powerful because they are very real and deeply relatable. His lyrics are honest and painful but ass he puts it, “if we feel together, then we’ll feel better.” Throughout the album, he takes us on a journey of depression, getting over heartbreak and acceptance.

One of my favourite songs on the album is “the broken hearts club.” It’s simple, emotional and so intimate. If you listen with headphones, it feels like he’s whispering into your ear. The song is about being part of the “Broken Hearts Club” because he just got broken up with. Heartbreak is one of the most painful and universal experiences in human history and he paints it beautifully in this song.

Another one of my favourites is “be.” The guitar riff is very grounded in folk music, and it’s different from any song on the album. It’s slower and more gentle. At the end of the chorus, he switches to a different key and then switches back to add magic to the song. It sounds quite similar to James Bay or Seafret.

He ends the album with a postscript (“p.s.”). I wasn’t very sure that this song fit at the end because it was the only song on this album that was really grounded in the electric piano. After listening to the entire album, it felt a bit out of place and didn’t tie together the entire album as I’d hoped. In a way, it was more of an afterthought which could make sense as a postscript. He also addresses the garden and flowers again in reference to both the album’s title and cover photo.

You can listen to gnash’s full album, “we”, below: