“Son of Spergy” — Daniel Caesar Album Review

On Oct. 24, Daniel Caesar released his fourth studio album, Son of Spergy, after more than two years of nearly complete silence.

This album delves into an entirely new sound and idea for Caesar, with him utilizing many elements of traditional gospel music. While this is not a traditional gospel album, it is almost entirely dedicated to Caesar’s personal experiences with embracing his faith and the struggles he had to overcome in order to reach it.

Track one, titled “Rain Down,” opens the album with a strong gospel sample mixed with a repetitive yet beautiful and powerful vocal performance. Sampha also contributes a beautiful backing track, helping to further set the initial mood of the album. It is clear that this is simply an opening track; however, it still begins the album wonderfully.

Track two, “Have a Baby (With Me),” showcases the desire to create something lasting in life — in this case, a child. The track starts slowly and then builds into a much more developed track both production-wise and lyrically.

Track three, and single, “Call on Me,” showcases a much different sound than the rest of the album, with harsh guitar and bass lines frequently used in indie rock, leading to one of the standout performances on the album. This is also a much faster-paced song, where Caesar sings about his defeat to temptations. This is likely meant to be a look into his former self before embracing his faith.

Track four, “Baby Blue,” is another song that can be viewed as one of the best on the album, with the dreamy backing vocals building up to an outro similar to a biblical hymn. The song is built with such emotion and tenderness throughout, showcasing the amount of love and effort Caesar continues to put into his music.

Track five, “Root of All Evil,” is yet another song that can be viewed as one of the strongest moments on this album. It focuses on the desire to do good and better yourself, yet still falling victim to the same mistakes and sins as before. Like every song on the album, this track was created with such extreme emotion while still remaining catchy and enjoyable to listen to.

Track six, “Who Knows,” showcases what I believe to be one of the lower points on the album. While this is not a bad song by any means, I find it to be simply incomparable to the other tracks surrounding it. It at times sounds repetitive both lyrically and production-wise, yet seems to hold no climax or point of evolution throughout. The track also relates to previously mentioned topics by restating his desire for a lasting relationship yet still feeling so alone.

This low point is extremely short-lived, however, as track seven, “Moon,” quickly brings back the emotion and attention to detail present in the earlier parts of the album. This song focuses on Caesar’s vulnerability and search for guidance despite feeling so alone at times. This is all tied together through a beautiful, thought-provoking instrumental present at every moment.

Track eight, “Touching God,” showcases the true emotional climax of this already amazing album. Featuring artists Yebba and Blood Orange, it acts as a choir for what I believe to be one of Caesar’s most impactful outros of his career. This is another song built similarly to a hymn, especially toward the end. This is also the point in the album where I believe Caesar fully accepts the faith he has been struggling to maintain throughout the beginning of the project.

This continues through track nine, “Sign of the Times,” where he begins by portraying a conversation with God and telling him how he feels about a specific relationship in his life. This is swiftly ended by a harsh beat switch, transitioning from a vocal-heavy ballad into Caesar rapping in an upscaled, high-pitched voice with multiple backing string instruments.

Track 10, “Emily’s Song,” another extremely strong track, acts as a thank-you to an ex-girlfriend who he states acted as a “mirror” to him.

Track 11, “No More Loving (On Women I Don’t Love),” serves as a statement to himself to avoid unwanted or unneeded relationships. This song, personally, starts out very weak, with some unusual vocal usage along with an overall vibe that seems completely disconnected from the rest of the album. The song eventually gets better about halfway through; however, this song overall stood out as another low point to me.

Finally, the concluding track, “Sins of the Father,” not only acts as the perfect conclusion to this beautiful project but also my personal favorite song in Caesar’s discography as a whole. Made with what I believe to be Caesar’s best lyrical and vocal performance, most detailed production, a perfect feature from Bon Iver, and a message that perfectly ties together the theme previously built in the former 11 songs, this song turns the album into an experience — something I believe anyone can listen to and enjoy, no matter what their favorite genre or song may be.

In conclusion, I found this album to be more than just music. It is a beautiful look into Caesar’s personal development since we last heard from him. He portrays a message of struggle, redemption and triumph throughout, leaving the listener feeling these same emotions with him as they progress through the album.

Throughout Caesar’s legendary career, he seems to always be raising the bar on what he is capable of. This album is no exception to that rule and acts as a beacon of light in a time when complete pieces of work of this quality seem harder to come by. I even believe that this could be Caesar’s most complete and cohesive project to date, and I am extremely excited to see how he plans to top this in the future.

Rating: 9.3/10
Favorite Songs: “Sins of the Father,” “Call on Me,” “Root of All Evil”
Least Favorite Song: “No More Loving (On Women I Don’t Love)”

Nick Myers is a first-year studying journalism. To contact him email nem5469@psu.edu