I, like most of you, am a massive fan of Daniel Caesar. Oh wait, you’re not? Well what’s actually wrong with you? He’s got the voice of an angel and his collab with Jessie Reyez–ground-breaking. The Canadian R&B singer’s sleepy, erratic album proves that good old-fashioned love songs and heartbreak ballads are still his strong suit. And you know I can’t help but be in awe that he’s continuously raising the bar, though that doesn’t mean it has no flaws, I’m aware of its downfalls and can recognise where he thrives.
Travelling far from the gospel arrangements and acoustic ballads that defined his debut, Caesar has collaborated with Justin Bieber, T-Pain, and Free Nationals, picking up pieces of their sounds along the way. He’s erratically experimental on Never Enough—Auto-Tune, pitched-down vocals, random rap verses, Frank Ocean-like ad-libs. With all the experiments that he’s succeeding, it’s met with subpar writing at times, lacking the depth that I’ve come to expect–bordering on robotic as he lacks the complex structure of Freudian. Is it enough to balance with what can only be described as a clusterfuck of sound?
Three standouts, “Always,” “Let Me Go,” and “Valentina,” show Caesar hasn’t lost his streak, opting for his tried and true heartbreak anthems to reign supreme. The back half of Never Enough taps into the bedroom R&B of 2018’s “Who Hurt You?” In what’s a swift turn from Caesar’s previous duets with women, the main tracklist—Mustafa, Omar Apollo, serpentwithfeet, Ty Dolla $ign—features men. “Homiesexual,” an ode to male toxicity, is the most harmonious. “I never meant to make you cry, my girl,” Ty Dolla professes to a lover who’s already moved on. Since he monopolised the Auto-Tune, Caesar balances the track with lustful vocals: “I-I-I know you like it nasty.” When he’s not over-intellectualizing his emotions, Caesar can be disarmingly raw. If only he didn’t write like chatgpt the rest of the time.
What’s the final verdict? Caesar hasn’t quite lost it, too me. He’s still spinning yarns, shooting straight while challenging his previous works. I think he’s lacking the feminine touch, no disrespect to the men featured, to help balance out his callous portrayal of sex and lust. There’s all the best parts of his discography, paired with all the worst parts of sultry R&B. Overall, it’s a solid listen and it does the job of capturing my attention from start to [mostly] finish. Thanks Dan, looking forward to the next one.
8/10
