Daniel Caesar, born Ashton Simmonds in Oshawa, Canada, grew up Seventh-day Adventist with a pastor father whom he feared and admired, who prized discipline and care. Saturdays were spent at church where he never connected with a "bearded figure in the sky" until music started. As a member of the choir, Caesar could feel the hairs on his arms lift when they started to sing. That is where he felt “whatever God is.” Tension and fighting with his father led to Simmonds being kicked out of the house just before his high school graduation. Years of pursuing his passion and ambition followed.
Simmonds started recording as Daniel Caesar in 2017 and found success along with new challenges, which he wrote about on his first three albums. Now Caesar returns with his fourth album, Son of Spergy. With the title nodding to his father, the songs reach toward the system that he was raised on and the person he is now. Faith arrives as sensation and practice, not doctrine, and Caesar’s lyrics treat accountability like daily maintenance, small choices that shape his life with questions being asked at every turn.
Musically, Caesar intentionally keeps things simple. Soft guitars, patient drums, warm bass, gentle keys, and beautifully stacked harmonies allow the songs to stay centered on Caesar's voice so the weight of his questions and reflections can be felt as on Root of All Evil when he sings “Am I a man or a beast? Somebody please discipline me for I'm a sinner, a sinner. I know that I should stay away but I can't. I'm too drawn to the evil. I know that I've gone astray, here I am. So many pretty people. Good of my heart, where will it lead?”
Caesar has said that Son of Spergy is a recalibration, and the pace bears that out. In a fast moving world, Son of Spergy slows things down, giving him room to honor and question beginnings and change, faith and doubt, a father’s presence and a man’s choices. Sometimes lack of speed is everything, and that's the case here. This is an album that shines in its many moments of quiet reflection.
.jpeg)
0 Comments