Graphic by Heidi Reid
Released: April 7, 2023
Label: Republic Records
Rating: 5.5/10
Similar to: Bruno Major, Omar Apollo, Summer Walker
Who ripped Daniel Caesar’s heart to shreds and led to the production of “NEVER ENOUGH?” Normally heartbreak has assisted the R&B artist in writing alluring and revealing ballads, but whatever has gone down in his life since the release of “CASE STUDY 01” in 2019 has driven Caesar from reflecting beauty and grief in his work to revenge and manipulation.
Featuring Omar Apollo, Ty Dolla $ign and serpentwithfeet, “NEVER ENOUGH” had potential on the surface. Although these artists hold the aptitude for stand-out features, they are the first sign of Caesar’s departure from his usual musical characteristics. Both “Freudian” and “Case Study 01” featured women, many of whom propelled the best tracks on each respective album. The choice of male-only features reiterates Caesar’s retreat from his infatuation with love and his newfound focus on being pseudo-profound.
R&B’s relationship to love and eroticism isn’t only undeniable, it is a necessary and distinct element of the genre. Unfortunately, Caesar has completely estranged the lyrical components he once utilized so well.
Between his tracks “We Find Love,” and “Get You,” I thought Caesar was not only somewhat of a lyrical genius but also a musician who had the capability to write about women beyond their sexuality. He wrote both beautifully and raw, but “NEVER ENOUGH” isn’t parallel to this. Although paired with his usual slow and heavy sound, it appears Caesar’s R&B sovereignty isn’t much without his regular poetic lyrics.
“Never Enough” is not experimental in terms of writing or sound— Caesar produced his usual variations of bedroom R&B layered with synth and the occasional piano. It’s nothing necessarily unenjoyable but nothing grand. It appears the deeper Caesar gets into his career, the more processed his sound is. His instrumentals are monotone, boring and can barely withstand the amount of editing it sounds like they have undergone.
The raw beauty of his work is gone, replaced with an overly processed sound and lyrics that are pretentious and impersonal. The synthesizer-extremist attitude paired with the 15 seconds of distorted sound opening each song attempt to distract from the mess of lyrics that appear to be generated from the sad boy side of Pinterest.
“Do You Like Me?” is the best example of the artist’s newfound writing style being not only disappointing but difficult to listen to. Caesar layers a mediocre bass and synth combo with degrading and pretentious lyrics as a shot at intimacy. No musician should have the audacity to write “At first I was f****** your friend, but I wanted you” and “Do you really like me?” and call it romantic. This track sounds like it would hit on you and then call you ugly when you politely say no. Sorry Daniel, I know you were trying to sound like a hopeless romantic, but you sound like Morrissey.
Another departure from Caesar’s usual style was “Shot My Baby,” which romanticizes killing an unfaithful partner and their mistress. Aside from the bassline, “Shot My Baby” has no interesting instrumentals and the lyrics are just misogyny camouflaged by passion.
Female artists write songs about killing their abusers and receive an unprecedented amount of grief from the industry and public, but I doubt Caesar will receive any backlash over the implications in this song. Variety failed to mention the track in their review and Pitchfork cited it only once with no negative connotation. While the song may not be literal and only trying to show reliability through rage, tracks about murdering women will never be a valuable addition to an album.
If you listen to a single track from “NEVER ENOUGH,” listen to “Let Me Go.” The fourth track on the album is our one taste of the artist’s former lyrical qualities. This personal ballad is reminiscent of Caesar’s earlier work and reflects his current emotions without being disdainful and overly intellectual.
Either Caesar thinks this new pretentious writing hits home with his listeners, or he has greatly misinterpreted what elements of his music fans loved the most. Hopefully for future music, Caesar will stop trying to be profound, give us another glimpse of his disarmingly raw writing and will once again include the strikingly beautiful features from women that we had come to expect from him.