Son Of Spergy

The early 2020s was a period of levelling up for Daniel Caesar. The Toronto R&B artist signed to a major label, logged No. 1 hits with Justin Bieber and Tyler, The Creator, and with 2023’s NEVER ENOUGH, scored his highest-charting album to date and graduated to arena-headliner status. But as a child of the church, Caesar has always seemed less interested in indulging in the spoils of stardom than in forging a deep spiritual connection with his congregation of fans. In the lead-up to the release of his fourth full-length, Son of Spergy, Caesar hosted surprise pop-up concerts in various cities, turning up in local parks on a few hours’ notice with just an acoustic guitar—a fitting prelude to his most intimate and off-the-cuff album to date. Named for his gospel-singer father, Son of Spergy is a moment for Caesar to recalibrate after years of whirlwind success, and reconnect with family, old flames and the church. “Lord, let your blessings rain down,” he sings on the opener, “Rain Down”, a hazy-headed hymn that sets the soul-searching tone for the album. Compared to the beat-driven experimentation of NEVER ENOUGH, Son of Spergy is both a more organic and psychedelic experience, favouring folky instrumentation that Caesar weaves to delightfully daydreamy effect on open-hearted serenades like “Have a Baby (With Me)” and the Bon Iver-assisted beauty “Moon”, where jazzy piano wafts through the dulcet acoustic arrangement like a misty drizzle. But Son of Spergy’s Zen vibe is counterbalanced by Caesar’s growing confidence at drawing far outside the lines of R&B: “Call on Me” is an upbeat outlier that pairs crunchy alt-rock guitars and reggae riddims, while “Baby Blue” is a beautifully dazed ballad that just turns stranger and stranger over its six minutes, layering woozy strings, chopped-up vocals and sound-effect samples with White Album-style wanderlust.