This past October, Daniel Caesar released his fourth studio album, Son of Spergy. The name is literal; “Spergy” being a nickname for Caesar’s father. In addition to reflecting on this relationship, Caesar explores themes including faith, love, and identity within the album.

 Caesar blends his traditional R&B style with soul and gospel, which have inspired him from the beginning of his career, but in his recent work have only been implemented in the form of accents. The album also experiments with aspects of folk music, featuring Bon Iver.  

The first track, “Rain Down,” sets the tone for the album as an exploration of faith and self-discovery. The song features artist Sampha, but his and Caesar’s voices blend together so well they are indistinguishable from one another, giving the effect of a choir. The piano carries into “Have a Baby (With Me),” a simple tune repeating throughout the song. The songwriting is also quite undeveloped and bare. Caesar proposes the idea of having a child as a way to leave a legacy while letting go of his partner. This is a strange idea in itself, but lyrics like “It’s too late for our dreams, we could make a new dream,” even come off as pessimistic and unromantic.

Similarly, the songwriting in “Call on Me” isn’t very impressive, but the faster tempo and acoustic guitar is a nice change. It’s one of my favorite tracks soundwise, in addition to my overall favorite, “Baby Blue.” This high point of the album opens with melodic and emotional guitar that meshes with Caesar’s vocals, creating a lullaby-like sound which develops and changes throughout the song. R&B style drums are added in during the first chorus, but are dialed back during the verses. The songwriting here is by far the best out of all the songs, achieving a tenderness that other tracks do not. Additionally, Caesar’s father himself, Norwill Simmonds, is featured briefly at the end. 

With an abrupt shift to a faster tempo and darker subject, “Root of All Evil” attempts to explore ideas like temptation and moral dilemma. However, the lyrics are very surface-level and blunt, not offering enough inquiry on the deep subjects he wants to tackle. Despite this, the song is pleasant and catchy because the melody is much livelier than the rest of the album, contrasting the themes of the lyrics. “Emily’s Song,” like others on the album, begins with acoustic guitar. The lyrics stick out much more than the music as Caesar recalls a past relationship. He thanks his ex for “being [his] mirror” and helping him discover more about himself. 

I had high hopes for “Touching God,” because it features two other artists I like, Yebba and Blood Orange. I was surprised by how well they blended together, but I wish that they were featured on a different song instead of the most vulnerable and emotional track. Caesar grapples with the imperfections of life, as well as some of his own, and expresses how these have complicated his relationship with God. Blood Orange provided soft vocals in the background that contributed to the instrumental track. This fits the emotional tone of the song but doesn’t take enough advantage of his vocal talent. Yebba’s vocals are beautiful, but her part is fairly short when she could have added a lot more to another song that wasn’t predominantly focused on Caesar’s self-reflection.

“Moon,” the seventh track, and “Sins of the Father,“ the final track, are pretty different even though they both feature Bon Iver. The two artists’ styles are combined wonderfully in “Moon.” Caesar’s main vocals, Bon Iver’s harmonies, and the instrumental compliment each other nicely, producing an ethereal sound.  “Sins of the Father” is more influenced by gospel, and it ties back to the first track. The song dives deeper into Caesar’s relationship with his father and how God filled that gap in his life. It’s very personal, and while the songwriting doesn’t stand out, the raw emotion and angelic vocals make up for it.

Throughout the album, Caesar attempted to explore many different ideas, which sometimes led to them being underdeveloped. However, the album is very cohesive, the folk and gospel elements also tie the tracks together creatively. Son of Spergy does set itself apart from Caesar’s past work by giving listeners a more unfiltered and intimate look into his life. It’s worth a listen if you enjoy Caesar and the other artists featured on the album, but it isn’t revolutionary.