With hit songs that have surged past the billion-stream milestone, such as “Best Part” with artist H.E.R. (that also won the Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance in 2019) and “Get You” with artist Kali Uchis, Daniel Caesar has established himself as a renowned R&B artist. Son of Spergy, his newest album, was highly anticipated among fans ever since it was teased in July of this year.
In just a week after the album’s release, Caesar jumped from around 35 million to 38 million monthly listeners on Spotify, placing him comfortably around the top 100 in the world. In that one week, Son of Spergy accumulated 82.7 million listens across all twelve songs, including streams from the three prereleased songs, “Have A Baby (With Me),” “Call On Me,” and “Moon,” which were released on July 25, August 22, and September 23 of this year, respectively.
“When I listen to his music, I start floating. This album is no exception.” That’s how Caden Yang (‘28) described listening to Daniel Caesar and the album as a whole. Among all the songs, “Who Knows” was his favorite. Caden really enjoyed the song’s energy — melancholic and introspective, perfect for looking out the window on his daily bus ride home from school.
Logan Yockey (‘27) shared similar sentiments.“I’ll probably be a waste of your time, but who knows?” is how Caesar opened up the song. Logan is usually a very enthusiastic guy, spreading positivity wherever he goes, but the moment he brought this line up, his posture noticeably relaxed as he wistfully gazed at the lyrics on Spotify. “That really strikes me. It’s that question, that look into the future, that uncertainty,” he explained.
On a slightly different note, Eliot D’Argenio’s (‘29) connected with a different song, “Sign of the Times.” The lyric that caught his attention in this song was “signs are all around me, I’m just trying to interpret.” Eliot really resonated with this line because it showed him that when life gets busy, it’s okay to be a little confused. Oftentimes, things like homework can build up and seem overwhelming, but he just has to take it one step at a time and patiently work through assignments.
Lyrics like these represent how deep the album has hit among fans. In fact, this is a trend among Caesar’s albums — rich, profound lines inviting self-reflection and reaching fans’ hearts.
In terms of overall vibe, Logan described it as more “lowkey” and “vulnerable.” He attributed this slight change in vibe to the album being more “God-centric,” as opposed to Caesar’s previous albums, which were all talking about girls and other figures in his life. As a Catholic, Logan doesn’t really mind, and the album has become perfect music to put on when driving.
Eliot also noticed a shift in theme and style: “the themes in [Freudian, his debut album,] are very universal. Whereas in Son of Spergy it’s more God-oriented.” And despite not being religious, he still really enjoyed the album: “it [feels] kind of like a heartbeat” — very natural and soothing.
These shifts in Caesar’s album style have shaped how listeners judge the album as a whole.
On a scale from one to ten, the average rating between Caden, Logan, and Eliot was 6.8/10, with each of them rating it 7.5, 6, and 7, respectively. Though these ratings may seem low, they take into account a difference in vibe, and also that Caesar has produced at least one better album in his career, which all three of them pointed out to be Freudian.
Caden, Logan, and Eliot all referred to Freudian as a nearly perfect album, with maybe one song they would skip on the entire thing. Logan even said: “There’s not a song on Freudian that I would skip.” This is the bar that Son of Spergy has been held to, so if you take that into consideration, these ratings are pretty high. In fact, Eliot explained: “I’m not saying anything bad about it, I’m just saying it doesn’t compare as well.”
Between the introspective lyrics, peaceful vibe, and high standard that Daniel Caesar’s earlier works have set, Son of Spergy shows that Caesar has not lost his touch in R&B. But not necessarily by producing big hits that shake the world — instead by reminding fans why they hit the ‘play’ button in the first place.
