Destin Conrad has been quietly building toward Love On Digital for years — and you can hear every step in the evolution. His debut album feels like a culmination, but more importantly, it sounds like freedom. After four EPs of increasingly confident storytelling and self-expression, this record doesn’t just fulfill expectations, it exceeds them with intention and a sharply defined aesthetic rooted in Y2K-era R&B and modern queer experience.
Fifteen tracks deep and clocking in at just under an hour, Love On Digital is immersive and unapologetically personal. Conrad filters love, lust, and loneliness through the screen — FaceTime flirtations, long-distance tension, late-night texts — but also reclaims physical space with tracks like “Kissing In Public” and “Party Wit U.” These aren’t just dance tracks; they’re declarations. He’s asserting his presence, his queerness, and his desire in rooms where that hasn’t always been safe or celebrated.
The production is full of winks to the early 2000s — think shimmering synths, glitchy percussion, and those Brandy-meets-Timbaland flourishes — but with a fresh coat of digital gloss that feels tailor-made for Gen Z’s hybrid realities. Standouts like “Delusional” and “Soft Side” balance vulnerability with sharp songwriting, and the features (Kehlani, Lil Nas X, serpentwithfeet, Teezo Touchdown) are well-placed, never gimmicky.
What’s most striking is Conrad’s voice — not just vocally, but narratively. He’s not trying to be anyone’s savior or sex symbol. He’s just telling the truth as he sees it, whether that’s about needing real-life touch or navigating the mess of an online romance. That clarity gives Love On Digital its depth.
It’s rare for a debut to feel this complete. But Destin Conrad isn’t rushing to prove himself — he’s just inviting us into his world, one shimmering track at a time.
