After many years of crafting sounds that were once timeless and modern, Daniel Caesar has delivered his most personal and bare album to date in Son of Spergy. Reaching outside of the typical modern R&B and the polished neo-soul that solidified his success, he has given up radio hits for a raw and fragile plea disguised as a hymn. The highly revised records have been replaced by a sound that is rooted in acoustic guitars and gospel choir echoes. Tracks like “Rain Down” set the tone of spiritual searching and brutal accountability, a brave yet necessary pivot that allows the listeners to relate and engage with the artist on a more human level.
While Caesar’s lyrical honesty is completely relentless, the musical choice in this album is dual-ended. He seems fully committed to sticking to the cohesive gospel and spiritual theme; he also incorporates a folk-soul atmosphere. His third song on the album, “Call On Me,” perfectly showcases this duality. It is an upbeat song that can be considered an outlier that contrasts with the album’s slow and vulnerable mood. The song uses rock guitars and heavy percussion that demonstrate Caesar’s frustrating and difficult devotion.
This bold approach of pairing rough and contemporary themes with the sacred sound is where he creates risk within his album. Caesar is not confessing just to become perfect; he is simply confessing to flaws he has and is currently making. This is why the album includes themes that might go against the gospel setting he has created. He continues to use profanity and not filter out his language, destroying any illusion of perfection because he wants to showcase that he is imperfect and that his spiritual journey has a messy reality.
The album reveals his family legacy, which has been expressed through vulnerability. On “Root of All Evil,” which features a mellow R&B sound with a melodic piano, Caesar pleads for discipline, asking, “Am I a man or a beast? / Somebody please, discipline me / For I’m a sinner.” This self-blame deepens on “Who Knows,” where a haunting guitar accompanies him as he wrestles with his self-doubt.
The themes of family and faith combine beautifully in the album’s centerpieces. The song “Baby Blue” stands out not just for its arrangement but for the inclusion of his own father, Norwill Simmonds, whose voice provides the intense and personal subject matter. Furthermore, the collaboration on “Touching God” (featuring Yebba and Blood Orange) provides the album’s most cinematic moment — a desperate hymn that uses soft strings, a deep piano, and ghostly background vocals to create a powerful and celestial atmosphere. Even the Bon Iver-assisted “Moon” perfects this primary mood — a hazy and existential folksy production.
Son of Spergy isn’t an album that demands to be enjoyed but rather to be felt and understood. It serves as a crucial act of transformation and improvement, proving that Daniel Caesar is ready to ditch the idealized image of his previous music to detail the messy, imperfect truth of his own humanity. While it probably won’t restore his place on R&B radio, it definitely solidifies him as one of his generation’s most compelling — and now most honestly flawed and raw — musical confessors.
Ultimately, this album is a deeply moving and emotionally rich work. While it may not achieve the commercial success of chart-toppers like Freudian or Never Enough, that wasn’t Caesar’s intent. Overall, I do believe the album deserves more acknowledgment for its profound impact and artistic merit.
Rating: 8.5/10