"Although his searching music openly drew from the gospel he heard growing up in an Adventist household, a distrust lurked. His second EP opened with ambient sounds from the Toronto neighborhood he landed in after clashing with his family and leaving home to pursue music. "Lay in your bed, reap what you sow/Welcome to your paradise," he sang, both celebrating and doubting his decision."
"By Freudian, Caesar's 2017 breakthrough, gospel had become more an accent in his music than a friction, magnifying his aching tales of young romance. He settled firmly into R&B on subsequent releases, documenting hook-ups, heartbreak, and nouveau-riche excess over guitar-driven arrangements flecked with touches of psych rock. On Son of Spergy, his fourth album, Caesar aims to reconcile his spirit and his flesh with songs of devotion that fuse gospel, R&B, and folk, but the songwriting lacks the depth to develop these weighty themes."
"The title refers to the nickname of Caesar's father, singer and pastor Norwill Simmonds. Caesar once cast him as an antagonist, singing, "Picking fights with my pops/He asked forgiveness a lot/But I don't need God's forgiveness." That rebellious sentiment hasn't played an explicit role in most of his music, but he's intent to rebuke it here, casting his earthly and heavenly fathers as pillars of his life."
Daniel Caesar's early music contained a heretic streak and drew openly from Adventist gospel, often expressing distrust alongside spiritual yearning. After clashing with family and relocating to Toronto, ambient sounds marked his second EP and gospel became an accent by the Freudian breakthrough, shifting him toward R&B focused on romance, hook-ups, and excess. On Son of Spergy Caesar aims to reconcile spirit and flesh, fusing gospel, R&B, and folk, and invokes his father Norwill Simmonds as a pillar. He opens with a lush gospel arrangement featuring Sampha and Tiana Kruškić, pleading "Lord let your blessings rain down," but the songwriting lacks depth and resorts to platitudes rather than testimonies.
Read at Pitchfork
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]