After 4 years of no new music, Daniel Caesar finally dropped his third album, “NEVER ENOUGH.” He starved his fans with this hiatus and then served them the most musically delectable dish of effervescent tunes, rhythmic reverberations and resonating acoustics. The album is truly a tearjerker, as he gives his fans some insight into life-changing hardships and enduring heartache through an emphasized soul sound and a slow R&B beat. Caesar also collaborated with both rising and iconic artists, such as serpentwithfeet, Mustafa, Omar Apollo, and Ty Dolla $ign.
Compared to his previous work, Caesar emphasizes a mellow take on the R&B/soul sound. Many of his songs are composed of piano instrumentals with descending chords that elicit emotions of sadness, feelings of yearning, or romantic desires from his listeners. There are also some songs with more drum-backed, upbeat sounds that really accent the rhythm factor of his intended R&B genre. On top of those two very different, but also complementary, background instrumentals are his phenomenal vocals. Caesar really lives up to his famously silky-smooth vocals. His naturally rich, deep tone and brilliant ability to sustain a soaring falsetto capture the hearts and ears of his audience.
Fans might also notice a new touch in his music: some of the chords and chord progressions that Caesar implemented into this album sound a lot like traditional church hymns. Although the musician added gospel arrangements to his previous albums, those emphasized the beautiful harmonies and acoustics of powerful voices that would add onto the influential artistry of his musicality and lyricism. As for the church hymns, his listeners are given the opportunity to gaze into a significant and nostalgic part of his life – that is his value of religious traditions and the music that comes with it, which plays into his Soul genre. Ultimately, Caesar continues to elevate the artistic musical consumption and immersion of his audience. With all of these new musical takes on Caesar’s part, “NEVER ENOUGH” represents the musical shift and artistic development that he has been experimenting with in the past few years, giving his fans some insight on what he’s been thinking.
Themes of religion, heartbreak, and self-reflection are constantly brought up across the songs. Repetition of phrases like “my saving grace” and “pain is inevitable” portray Caesar’s current state of mind when he is having a revelation about his life and his role in the world. His lyrics also guide listeners through nostalgic markers in his life like Montego Bay and Bloor Street, as well as his life in Toronto in 2014 before he got famous.
Although it is not a surprise, Caesar also wrote lyrics that narrate a story which he can relate to as a self-inserted character, like the song “Shot My Baby.” In this song, he writes in the first-person to describe the things he would do to prove himself to his potential lover. Hopefully, metaphorically, he would go as far as shooting someone to prove his masculinity to his loving partner. This song isn’t the most talked about compared to the other tracks, like “Valentina” or “Always”, but it was certainly the most interesting one — the narrative’s violent bluntness was quite concerning. It is an especially captivating song to listen to and interpret with the intense supporting instrumentals. Other tracks are not as narratively intense, like “Shot My Baby.” Instead, most of the other songs feature moments of heartbreak and longing for a loving, genuine relationship. Caesar also highlights his heart-wrenching, gratifying personal growth throughout his experience with love, reflecting on what is best for him.
Overall, the album does a great job of representing Caesar’s forte in lyrics that narrate the classic heartbreak and the R&B sleepy instrumentals that back them up. This is shown best in the songs “Valentina,” “Always” and “Let Me Go.” He also expands his range, which showcases what he’s learned from collaborations with artists like Justin Bieber and the Free Nationals. His other songs dabble in country-bluegrass sounds, which may have been influenced by his collaborations with Justin Bieber’s recent music. His fans may also notice his recent dabble in auto-tuned and pitched-down vocals in his songs “Ocho Rios” and “Toronto 2014,” which further emphasizes the melancholy and desperation for love that he has felt throughout his life.
This production and dabbling in different genres and musical sounds were not just a product of experiences in collaborations. Much of the musically creative experimentation with different sounds came from the great minds of Caesar’s trusted producers, Matthew Burnett and Jordan Evans. They have worked together for the past eight years, unitedly building up to this musical project of ultimate neo-soul melodies. As the three musicians were coming up with music, they collectively decided to touch on absolutely every type of genre that Caesar resonated with — their celebrated acoustic harmonies, gospel-like chords and the addition of auto-tune, pitch-lowering and country bluegrass sounds.
As expected, Caesar’s highly anticipated album does not disappoint with its versatility in vocals, range of personal and emotional lyricism and transcending experimental use in instrumentals. Once again, Daniel Caesar has artistically impacted the progression of the music industry, proving that his music never misses. It is no joke when it comes to the universal effect of Caesar’s music — the album will certainly make fans feel like they are levitating, just as his previous work accomplished.
Cameryn Nguyen is an Arts & Entertainment Intern for the spring 2023 quarter. She can be reached at camerynn@uci.edu.