Never Enough (Daniel Caesar album)
Never Enough is the third studio album by Canadian singer-songwriter Daniel Caesar. It was released through Republic on April 7, 2023, two days after his 28th birthday. Production was handled by Caesar himself, Zachary Simmonds, Sir Dylan, Sevn Thomas, Rami, and Raphael Saadiq.
Background and recording
On February 8, 2022, in an interview with Complex Canada of his home country, Caesar said that he recorded the album mostly by himself after quarantine for the COVID-19 pandemic. Three days later, in an interview with Hypebeast, he stated that he was tapping into different influences aside from his traditional style of R&B music for his next album. On April 12, 2022, it was announced that Caesar had signed with Republic Records and he was interviewed by Billboard, in which he shared that the album would be less focused on R&B and include influences that he was earlier inspired by, such as folk and country music. On March 21, 2023, Caesar announced the title of its album and shared its cover art, tracklist, and release date.Singles and promotion
The lead single of the album, "Do You Like Me?", was released on January 27, 2023. The second single, "Let Me Go", was released on February 10, 2023. On February 28, 2023, Caesar announced the title of the album via now-deleted social media posts. On March 21, 2023, he shared its release date, cover art, and tracklist. On March 31, 2023, the third single, "Valentina", was released. On April 4, 2023, he released "Unstoppable", the fourth and final single before the album.Critical reception
Ben Okazawa of Exclaim! concludes his review by describing the album as "a cohesive display of genre experimentation that cements Caesar's place as one of the smartest and most talented artists in today's constantly mutating R&B pantheon." Andy Kellman's review for AllMusic described the album as "open, messy, and fascinating." Clash's Grace Dodd called the album "a warm, intimate masterclass in contemporary R&B." Heven Haile of Pitchfork described the album as "sleepy erratically experimental." Writing for HipHopDX, Louis Pavlakos concludes by stating that the album "marks a redemption arc for a flawed man with equally flawed views to make a case at proving he's matured."The album was shortlisted for the 2023 Polaris Music Prize, and won the Juno Award for Contemporary R&B/Soul Recording of the Year at the Juno Awards of 2024.
Track listing
Notes- signifies a co-producer
- signifies an uncredited co-producer
Personnel
- Daniel Caesar – vocals ; bass ; guitar ; synth bass ; synthesizer programming ; drums
- Axel Benamar – programming
- BadBadNotGood
- * Chester Hansen – bass
- * Alexander Sowinski – drums
- * Leland Whitty – guitar, synth bass
- Chronixx – vocals
- Daniel Migdal – strings
- DannyBoyStyles – guitar
- Dylan Wiggins – programming ; synthesizer programming
- Emile Haynie – drum programming
- Joel Compass – programming
- Jordan Evans – programming
- Justin Lucas – guitar
- Justine Skye – background vocals
- Mark Ronson – programming
- Matthew Burnett – bass ; drums, programming, synthesizer programming
- Rami Yacoub – programming
- Sabrina Claudio – background vocals
- Serpentwithfeet – background vocals
- Sevn Thomas – drum programming
- Simon Hessman – guitar
- Sir Nolan – programming, guitar, synth bass
- Zachary Simmonds – programming
- Dylan Wiggins – engineer
- Félix Remy – engineer
- Jake Ferguson – engineer
- Jens Jungkurth – engineer
- Migui Maloles – engineer
- Riley Bell – engineer
- Sir Nolan – engineer
- Tom Elmhirst – mixer ; engineer
Charts