Rating: 4/5
Prior to listening to “Never Enough” by Canadian singer Daniel Caesar, I was only familiar with the singer’s 2017 smash hit “Best Part” featuring H.E.R, so I went into the singer’s third studio album expecting to hear the same laid-back, smooth sound.
I wasn’t disappointed, as the album opens with Caesar’s falsetto gently singing to barely-there synths on “Ocho Rios.” As the track progresses, a simple drum pattern kicks in along with an acoustic guitar and a light chorus of background vocals while Caesar dips into a deeper voice. The track is predictable, but enjoyable nonetheless and provides a nice introduction to the various vocal styles Caesar continues to play around with over the course of the album.
Next on the tracklist is “Valentina,” one of my personal favorites. Caesar’s voice dances over an effortless, stripped-back R&B instrumental in a great follow-up to the intro. The song has a steady pace that was fast enough to pique my interest after a very slow start to the album, but not so fast as to divert from the relaxing tone set by “Ocho Rios.” A dreamy synth slowly pulsates in the back, complimenting Caesar’s slow, airy vocals and the gentle rolling bass. At two minutes and 34 seconds, the track is the perfect length, as any shorter would’ve left me wanting more while a longer song could’ve quickly become drawn out.
The next few tracks are enjoyable and include songs like “Let Me Go” that showcases Caesar’s stronger vocals paired with background vocals that melds into the instrumental. A steady “ooh” adlib becomes one with the simple, reverberated guitar melody and is reminiscent of a lullaby in the best way possible. Short interjections of a chirpy vocal punctuate each stream of “oohs”’ and provide a slight upbeat vibe to the track.
Caesar’s falsetto throughout the album stands out because of how well it works with the calm instrumentation. Many of the choruses feature a drawn out vowel sound in Caesar’s breathier, high pitched vocals which excellently lend themselves to its calming feel.
Songs like “Shot My Baby” and “Buyer’s Remorse” seem like an attempt at experimenting outside of the signature sound of “Never Enough” with mixed results. “Buyer’s Remorse” opens with stylistically autotuned vocals over an extremely plain instrumental and similar dreamy background vocals to previous tracks. Unfortunately, the beat comes in too late, making the song feel anticlimactic with a feature from Omar Apollo that doesn’t add anything to the track. On “Shot My Baby,” however, stronger percussion, vocals, and guitar creates a darker sound with more power behind it that isn’t displayed in many other tracks. While the song differs from the general sound, its main melody and adlibs, combined with the instrumental, are catchy and match the story-like narration in the lyrics.
A few tracks feel like filler songs with similar sounds and bland production that never managed to grab my attention. They don’t take away from the album enough to greatly affect my rating, but slightly narrowing down the tracklist would’ve bumped the project to a five out of five. Overall, “Never Enough” is a great introduction to Daniel Caesar and a well-rounded album. The general tone of the album is simple and acoustic, making it perfect for studying or going on long car rides. Transporting me to a relaxed state of mind with only a few shortcomings, “Never Enough” is easy-listening almost at its peak.