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Emeritus
Reviews 60
Approval 98%
Soundoffs 39
News Articles 6
Band Edits + Tags 5
Album Edits 77
Album Ratings 517
Objectivity 66%
Last Active 09-22-12 5:03 am
Joined 11-24-09
Review Comments 2,090
| Conrad's 2010: Top 25 (with Descriptions!)
Self-explanatory. I don't know why I spent as much time as I did writing
this. | | 25 |  | Deerhunter
Halcyon Digest
The lyrics center around Bradford Cox's predictable themes of isolation and
religion, but Halcyon Digest sounds warm and welcoming despite being a largely
brooding affair. Knock "Desire Lines" up a few notches and it'd be a dead ringer
for an Arcade Fire track (except it'd be better than anything off of The Suburbs,
excepting maybe one or two tracks). Indeed, Halcyon Digest is the sound of a
band growing and improving with every drum-machine beat, every dreamy
guitar strum, and every pained-but-forgiving vocal. | | 24 |  | Marnie Stern
Marnie Stern
Marnie Stern is sick of your shit. Marnie Stern is going to go out and have a
great time shredding with her buddies while you?re stuck at home listening to
records in that old Metallica t-shirt you bought at the thrift store and are now
wearing ironically (?cause, you know, Metallica suck). But Marnie Stern is going
to be sad while doing it. Because her boyfriend died. Because she can't seem to
believe in herself. But she does. | | 23 |  | Gonjasufi
A Sufi and a Killer
Gonjasufi has a versatile croak of a voice that he melds with below-fi loops and
unsettling percussion. Songs like "DedNd" sound as if they're trying to break out
of some sort of sonic cage, while "Kowboyz & Indians" somehow manages to
combine what sounds like Jónsi doing an Arabic chant with the title phrase
repeated over and over again. It's ugly, at times even repulsive, but I can't tear
myself away from it. | | 22 |  | Phantogram
Eyelid Movies
Phantogram's immensely likable debut, Eyelid Movies, isn't particularly
ambitious or unusual. But it is effective, providing something for pretty much
everybody; existing primarily in a late-'90s trip-hop vibe, songs like "You Are
The Ocean" resemble the sort of songs that would have snuck their way into
the charts a little over a decade ago. Sarah Barthel's voice resembles a toned-
down Karen O, and Josh Carter - well, he tries his best. | | 21 |  | Das Racist
Sit Down, Man
For a group that made its name on a dumbly funny song called "Combination
Pizza Hut and Taco Bell" (sample lyric: "I'm at the Pizza Hut / I'm at the Taco
Bell / I'm at the combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell"), Das Racist became
pretty damn smart on Sit Down, Man. I mean, there was always a suspicion
that "Combination" wasn't actually about fast food franchises, that there was
something distinctly meta underneath; here, they capitalize on that promise
and make good on it. | | 20 |  | The Books
The Way Out
The Books are probably the funniest band around right now. Not "funny ha-ha",
per se, nor "liekomg this is s0 funny" irony-laden humor, but quiet, knowing
humor that strikes the right balance between being tongue-in-cheek and
completely earnest. Hearing a kid threatening his playmate, "I could probably
kill you by cutting your toes off and working my way up...towards your brain!" is
both unsettling and adorable, and The Books take that delicate balance and
dispense with it. | | 19 |  | Janelle Monae
The ArchAndroid (Suites II and III of IV)
One of the most self-assured and ambitious debuts of any year, Janelle Monáe's
The ArchAndroid is delightfully promiscuous, dabbling in traditional rhythm-and-
blues, funk, electro-pop, whatever the hell of Montreal thinks they're doing at
the moment, and orchestral jazz. It would be showing off, if Monáe didn't knock
it out of the park nearly every time. She flits ably between different genres,
allowing them to mold around her, and the result is stunning. | | 18 |  | The Tallest Man on Earth
The Wild Hunt
Kristian Matsson's voice is a magnificent thing, at once grabbing you with its
urgency and captivating you with its raw emotion. Matsson's songs are similarly
impressive, his lyrics evocative, his melodies immediately familiar and not. The
Wild Hunt is loaded with great songs, with nary a misstep in sight (except the
piano-driven closer, which hews a little bit too close to Elton John for comfort). | | 17 |  | Beach House
Teen Dream
Teen Dream is full-blooded yet distant; on songs like "Norway", Victoria
Legrand's voice takes on a haunting, otherworldly quality, giving the soaring
"Norway-ay-ay, ay-ay-ay-ay" chorus a jolt of ethereality. The production is
crystal clear, allowing the band's full color palette to shine, and the songs - oh,
the songs. That soaring "in a matter of time" in "Walk in the Park", that
incredible chorus in "10 Mile Stereo"? Yeah. Fantastic. | | 16 |  | How to Dress Well
Love Remains
On paper, Love Remains is one of the most self-indulgent releases of the year.
On first listen...it's also one of the most self-indulgent releases of the year. Tom
Krell's brand of reverb-soaked dream-pop is devoid of fidelity entirely, leaving his
weightless voice as an anchor for his songs' intangible qualities. As a result,
we're left with nothing but sound. It's immense and intimate, cold and
beautiful. | | 15 |  | Four Tet
There Is Love In You
Whoever thought that Kieran Hebden's most accessible album would, in some
ways, be his most controversial? There Is Love In You has been subject to
discussion about whether or not it is a "real" Four Tet album as opposed to
something else, about whether or not the straight-forward beats constitute it as
"dance music" or...something else. One thing, however, has been glaringly left
out of these conversations: how beautiful this album actually sounds. | | 14 |  | Yellow Swans
Going Places
Beauty cannot exist without ugliness. On Going Places, Yellow Swans' final
album, the boundary between these two extremes is often broken, if not
disregarded entirely. The band piles layers upon layers of sound, building up an
intense wall of sound that is as cathartic as it is unsettling, immediately
beautiful and hideous at the same time. | | 13 |  | Sufjan Stevens
All Delighted People EP
No song made me cry as much as the original version of "All Delighted People",
so that alone would have given the 60-minute All Delighted People EP a spot on
my top 25. But then there are gems like "The Owl and the Tanager",
incomprehensible but absolutely gorgeous, and "Heirloom", a simple, heart-
tugging wisp of a song that insists, "Oh no, I never meant to be a pest to
anyone this time." The Age of Adz was in serious need of an editor, but with this
EP, we really saw Sufjan bare all. "I love you from the top of my heart" is going
into my greeting cards for at least the next year. | | 12 |  | Joanna Newsom
Have One On Me
"In California" is the best song J-New has ever recorded and it comes back at
the end of the record with "Does Not Suffice" and god damn it why is this album
so fucking long | | 11 |  | Robyn
Body Talk
Much has been made about Robyn's empathetic lyrics and how she is the
antithesis of the modern-day pop star, but you know what? Fuck that. I'm
convinced that Robyn doesn't have any qualms about her music being "serious"
or otherwise, whether or not it's grouped with Rihanna or Fever Ray. Body Talk
transcends discussion by simply existing, by being as universal as it is. "We
dance to the beat of unrecognized genius," Robyn says icily. Indeed, but
elsewhere, she's dancing on her own, cracking Back to the Future references,
watching stars on the hood of her car, and telling the Vatican that they need a
black pope, and she better be a woman. Oh, damn! | | 10 |  | Big Boi
Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty
Big Boi spends most of his proper solo debut rapping about how great a lover he
is, but he's so damn likable while doing the whole thing that you can't help but
agree. And come on, you can't deny that Sir Lucious Left Foot is one of the
most aerodynamic hip-hop albums in years; I dare you to not bounce up and
down to the opening of "Daddy Fat Sax". But in the end, it's not the killer
singles that stay with you (although Big Boi miraculously manages to get Scott
Storch to not suck absolute bollocks on "Shutterbugg") - it's the subtle
moments like when the beat of "Turns Me On" flips backward momentarily as
"from the back" escapes Boi's lips before righting itself again. It's a stroke of
genius, and it passes by so quickly that you'd miss it the first time around.
Which is why Sir Lucious Left Foot is so great; it's kaleidoscopic and
groundbreaking while being straight-up fun. | | 9 |  | Owen Pallett
Heartland
"Pathos is borne, borne out of bullshit." Heavy-handed, perhaps, but you can't
deny that he's right. On Heartland, Owen Pallett (previously known as Final
Fantasy) pulls out all the stops, employing full orchestras to help flesh out his
songs. And oh, what songs they are. If Pallett's lyrics occasionally border on the
melodramatic, they're also endearingly confessional. The melodies are gorgeous,
the orchestration is predictably excellent (while retaining an appealingly rough-
edged quality), and the self-consciously epic structure works, mostly because
Pallett is willing to make fun of himself. Yet Heartland is most successful when it
gets excited; when "Lewis Takes Off His Shirt" climaxes with an ecstatic, "If
what I have is what you need / I'm never going to give it to you!" there's a
palpable sense of urgency that hits hard. | | 8 |  | Emeralds
Does It Look Like I'm Here?
Ambient music is typically less concerned with melody than it is with, well,
ambience. But Does It Look Like I'm Here?, the best album in Emeralds'
ridiculously vast discography, is unabashedly tuneful. That isn't to say that the
trio don't create gorgeous ambient spaces; they do, and they do it very well. But
listen to "Genetic" and tell me that it doesn't sound like Pink Floyd decided to
throw out their guitars and just fucking jam. Indeed, for every track like the
stunning "Goes By" there's a restless one like "Double Helix". Emeralds infuse
their music with a distinctly dark undercurrent, yet their sound is at once
calming, perhaps even beatific. It's this tension that makes Does It Look Like
I'm Here? as superb as it is. | | 7 |  | Sleigh Bells
Treats
Okay, I'm just going to go out on a limb and say it: Treats is, almost without
exception, the same song over and over again. Except that that one song is the
most exhilarating thing you've ever heard, no matter how many insane songs
you've ever heard. "Hollaback Girl" with a shit ton of distortion and a healthy
dollop of actual fun and some real musicality (sorry, Gwen, but that shit isn't B-
A-N-A-N-A-S, it's just that, S-H-I-T), bleachers crunching, a six-string exploding
in flames, Alexis Krauss's deceptively sweet voice, and, well, yeah, that's pretty
much it. Oh, and I guess it sounds like a Honda CRZ as well? | | 6 |  | M.I.A.
Maya
The hive mind hath spoken: M.I.A.'s newest album is bad. We all know the story
- the once-excellent artist thrust into sudden fame lets her ego get the best of
her, tweets a journalist's phone number in response to an unflattering feature,
starts spewing bullshit like "Google and Facebook were invented by the C.I.A."
and releases a record that's nothing but self-aggrandizing noise. Except that /\/\
/\ Y /\ is so much more than that. The beats are sparse, the production clatters
and buzzes woozily, the vocals are chopped up and thrown into a blender, and
the result is nothing short of gripping. From the jarring drill-and-bass (literally)
of "Steppin' Up" to the deliriously catchy stoner-rap of "Teqkilla" to the achingly
beautiful electro-pop of "Space", everything here grabs your attention and
doesn't let it go. Yeah, she isn't exactly subtle (opening skit "The Message"
pretty much guarantees that this whole "Google connected to the government"
thing isn't going away anytime soon), but did we ever listen to M.I.A. because of
her politics? The answer to that is an unequivocal "no," which is why the
discussion over whether or not M.I.A. is "authentic" is absolute rubbish. She
fights the ones that fight her, defensive as ever, holding up the digital ruckus
that she simultaneously condemns and embraces (uh, hello, her Twitter) as a
shield. It might be ugly, but it's blisteringly real, even when it isn't. | | 5 |  | The Knife
Tomorrow, In A Year
It's not surprising that Tomorrow, In A Year was ultimately an album left to
gather dust on the shelves of those listeners that put it momentarily atop the
Billboard Electronic/Dance charts. A follow-up to Silent Shout this is not. And on
first listen, it's easy to dismiss this "experimental opera" as a faux-intellectual
artistic endeavor, just as it's easy to dismiss The Knife as two batshit siblings
who just needed a few more hugs from Mommy and Daddy. But Tomorrow, In A
Year isn't just a vanity project; it's every bit as fully formed as the acclaimed
Silent Shout, if not more so. The music, taking inspiration from Charles Darwin's
On the Origin of Species, literally evolves over the course of 90 minutes, from
the drips of the introduction to the blissfully unkempt pop of the title track.
Alternately maddening, beautiful, impressive, confusing, or all of the above at
once, the record is the sound of music disintegrating, reintegrating, and
reinventing itself. "Variation of Birds" trips over itself countless times before
finally settling into a groove, like a baby learning to walk; you're waiting with
bated breath for it to find its way, wondering if it ever will - and then it does,
and that moment is supremely gratifying. No, it isn't easy listening, but it's
ultimately very rewarding. | | 4 |  | LCD Soundsystem
This Is Happening
James Murphy doesn?t really understand anything about the world, but he
knows this, and he knows that you don?t either. So when he?s rapping about
Obama and sounding like a dead ringer for David Byrne or when he?s putting
weird synth noises on ?Somebody?s Calling Me? to shamelessly ape Iggy Pop,
there?s a reason for it. He?s referential and derivative and original and lyrically
lazy and lyrically brilliant and fantastic and useless, but he isn?t pretentious.
Because yeah, he?s sort of a dick to write a song that?s ostensibly about how
awesome it would be to write a song about drunk girls filing complaints, but at
least he owns that, you know? And on This Is Happening, Murphy isn?t just
smugly self-aware ? he?s disillusioned too. He doesn?t want to be your baby
anymore. All he wants are your bitter tears. The record ends in resignation:
?Look around you / you?re surrounded / it won?t get any better.? All of which
makes this album sound like a real drag?except that Murphy's too good a
producer to let his album dissolve into mindless solipsism. This album sounds
pristine, everything placed just so, which makes Murphy?s navel-gazing all the
more poignant. That ridiculous moment where your speakers blow up in ?Dance
Yrself Clean? is framed by the line, ?Don?t you want me to wake up?? In the
end, This Is Happening sounds like music to dance to, but it feels more like an
intimate manifesto. | | 3 |  | Women
Public Strain
If Flying Lotus seems to defy categorization, Women fit neatly into a category
precisely in order to break down its walls. On the surface, Public Strain is an
archetypal indie rock record; there's virtually no bass in the mix, the fidelity is
ridiculously low, and the reverb is piled on liberally. The whole album reads like
one big love letter to the Velvet Underground. But there's something insistently
sinister happening underneath all of those superficial genre trappings. You can
hear a bass pedal squeak in "China Steps", the mix going into the red on
"Untogether", and you can hear pure, unadulterated beauty in "Penal Colony".
The time signatures are ever so slightly off balance, the guitar work is subtly
intricate, and the production, initially ugly, utterly compelling, and spacious, is
the sound of music breathing. It's fitting, then, that Women end this
magnificent album with "Eyesore", the sound of every indie-rock trope
collapsing upon itself with a heaving sigh. To call it indie rock would be a
disservice. Public Strain is music, stripped of all ornamentation, left utterly
naked. | | 2 |  | Flying Lotus
Cosmogramma
At once denser yet more accessible than Los Angeles could ever hope to be,
Cosmogramma is Flying Lotus's most cogent statement yet; every idea is
presented clearly, perfectly, beautifully, and smoothly. No album this year
flowed quite like this one; hell, no album this year sounded quite like this one.
Forget trying to categorize it. Cosmogramma isn't dubstep or (ugh) IDM or
(double ugh) "electronica". It's everything you'd expect it to be and more, which
means it's nigh-impossible to describe; it's a free jazz space opera, the stuff
that'll be playing in speakeasies a hundred years from now (hey, everything
blends together with the sheen of antiquity), a fusion of perhaps every
awesome thing you've ever heard - or even perhaps things you never even
thought were awesome (ping-pong balls, anyone?) - into one blissful 45-minute
trip. | | 1 |  | Kanye West
My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
You know, before this, I never gave a shit about Kanye West. To me, he was
just a gigantic douche who had a knack for producing maddeningly catchy (and
occasionally really great) singles. But this.. this is so great, so self-assured, at
once hugely ambitious and knowingly over-the-top, without sacrificing an ounce
of the pop charm that made Yeezy such an enormous celebrity in the first place.
"They said I was the abomination of Obama's nation/well that's a pretty bad
way to start a conversation," he says -- is he poking fun at his own ridiculous
disposition or is he really angry? Does it even really matter? "Everybody knows
I'm a motherfuckin' monster" isn't exactly the most, ahem, subtle statement
ever made, but it does reflect on West's obscene stardom in a fairly poignant
manner. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is as meta as a Kaufman screenplay
and as theatrical as a Fellini film, but it never feels self-indulgent. West is an
egomaniac, but at least he's an earnest one. And that's what makes all the
difference. | |
conradtao
12.08.10 | YESSSSSSSSSSSSSS no r's
i dare not edit this because out come the rs and the black diamonds (yes, i see that black diamond in 24 but whatever)
and yeah, i know i've already posted my list but this time i HAVE DESCRIPTIONS so yes | alachlahol
12.08.10 | do you smoke djarum clove cigarettes and drink nothing but pabst blue ribbon? | conradtao
12.08.10 | bite me | DoubtGin
12.08.10 | marnie stern is like a worse female counterpart to Tera Melos | couldwinarabbit
12.08.10 | pbr is a fine beverage. This list is pretty damn solid. really good descriptions at least 10 of these will be on my top 25. | greg84
12.08.10 | Your thoughts on 6 are spot-on. 4 of these will be on my list. | Yotimi
12.08.10 | Good list. I keep hearing Marnie is like Tera Melos - but the drums in Stern's album are what do it for me so I dig her album more. Good descriptions - I follow the hive mind on 6 though (really dissapointed with that one) | conradtao
12.08.10 | I guess I can understand the negative reaction to 6, but I feel a really, really intense connection to Maya and how confrontational the music just sounds. | sniper
12.08.10 | Awesome list. | couldwinarabbit
12.08.10 | I never liked like any M.I.A stuff. | sniper
12.08.10 | Fly like paper get high like planes | Trond
12.08.10 | Many of these will be on my list. And your descriptions made me wanna listen to a few i havent heard so far! Good job! :)
| conradtao
12.08.10 | Yay! :D | AggravatedYeti
12.08.10 | happy you decided to expand upon this. great list conrad. | klap
12.08.10 | great descriptions | conradtao
12.08.10 | I am currently surrounded by posters of the jazz greats while listening to Cosmogramma
feels really good | Electric City
12.09.10 | perfect description for women, nailed how i feel entirely | dr2den
12.09.10 | awe | Electric City
12.09.10 | yeah this list is fantastic, those descriptions are awesome | LegendofPittman
12.09.10 | Nice list, but I bet this will be Pitchforks top 25 as well. lol | couldwinarabbit
12.09.10 | featured and not written by staff?!?! | conradtao
12.09.10 | ^^ yeah, ho hum. they hated 6 though
thanks, adam : ) | conradtao
12.09.10 | OH, A FEATURE! | dirkschamgganbad
12.09.10 | yeah i asked them to feature it
if i spent that much time writing descriptions i'd want it featured | conradtao
12.09.10 | aww, thanks! :D | Willie
12.09.10 | --featured and not written by staff?!?!--
Most featured lists aren't done by staff. | couldwinarabbit
12.09.10 | I don't complain because the average staffer has better taste than the average user and that translates into better lists but I would say a much higher comparative amount of featured lists are staff, again not complaining. | Willie
12.09.10 | Lately yes, because I'm featuring their end-of-year lists as they are being posted but the average staffer doesn't actually post very many lists. | conradtao
12.09.10 | i'm thinking of making a list of overrated albums.. but i feel that that might be too spiteful. | Defeater
12.09.10 | #1 is correct. | couldwinarabbit
12.09.10 | only if the monitor is on it. High Violet is really overrated though. | Aids
12.09.10 | Mad props for the effort in the write ups. A well-deserved feature. And #1 is correct for sure. | liledman
12.09.10 | list is nice had deja vu thinking man ive seen one like this before... maybe because you had already posted it. good job. | conradtao
12.09.10 | ha, thanks man.
How did Sputnik react to Ariel Pink? That got overrated by a lot of publications IMO | SeaAnemone
12.09.10 | I didn't like it but then again I've never been a fan of Ariel Pink personally | Kiran
12.09.10 | super list
love a lot of these and you've definitely convinced me to look into emeralds | conradtao
12.09.10 | thanks, kiran
i was shocked to see emeralds at the top of Drowned in Sound's 2010 list, but in the end it makes sense, it's just really damn good. | Winsomniac
12.09.10 | Impressive list. Can't say it's my neck of the woods, but props for the decrips, they were great. | Kiran
12.09.10 | oh did emeralds get top spot? i haven't seen any other year end lists yet but that's really impressive, can't wait to listen to it
if you haven't already heard it, i think you might like warpaint - the fool. i loved it. | conradtao
12.09.10 | thanks chambered and Win. Listening to Warpaint right now; how did I miss this? It's great. Sounds a bit like Glasser with a bit more of a rock bent | 204409
12.09.10 | is this list on sputnikmusic? | conradtao
12.09.10 | .. yes | Yotimi
12.09.10 | "How did Sputnik react to Ariel Pink? They got overrated by a lot of publications IMO"
I really loved that album. Probably top 10 for me. | BallsToTheWall
12.09.10 | Pretty sure 22 is from 2009 why do I keep hearing otherwise? | Kiran
12.09.10 | i thought the same balls so i checked it out and it was released in september 09 in europe, and leaked early august i believe, but only got a US release in february this year. explains why most of the buzz around it came late last year. | BallsToTheWall
12.09.10 | That explains much. Gracias senor. | conradtao
12.09.10 | I might actually review 22 at some point.. | Fluorine
12.10.10 | I really like this list.
High Violet isn't here? Shocking! | lobby
12.10.10 | What an excellent list, I will listen to 3 and 7 | thebhoy
12.10.10 | Never really got into Owen Pallet, never saw him as a great songwriter. The rest of this list is solid, though I also can't stand Marnie Stern. | Blaizend
12.10.10 | bad list, good justifications tho | couldwinarabbit
12.11.10 | 3 is crazy good | conradtao
12.11.10 | ^^ haha i guess that's what i was going for! :) | Yotimi
12.17.10 | It took me way too long to check out 8 but I'm listening now and it's awesome. Reminds me of a more ambient version of M83's Dead Cities (One of favorite albums of all time). | conradtao
12.17.10 | Emeralds is fantastic C: | nicolauz
12.22.10 | Great list is great. |
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