Daniel Caesar's Never Enough combines experimental sounds with personal insights

Toronto R&B star Daniel Caesar's third album Never Enough is one of the 10 shortlisted albums vying for this year's Polaris Music Prize. CBC Music's Shortlist Shortcut series is back again this summer to help music fans discover the key details about all 10 records. 

Dig into the stories behind the album, the tracks you need to know, and the perfect summer activities to complement your listening below. 

You can also listen to The Ten radio special on the album. 

Artist:

Daniel Caesar.

Album:

Never Enough.

Polaris Music Prize history: 

This is Daniel Caesar's second short list appearance. His debut album Freudian earned him a short list nomination in 2018; his sophomore album Case Study 01 only made the long list in 2020. 

Story behind the nominated album: 

Daniel Caesar had been grinding away in the Toronto music scene since 2015, but the breakthrough of his 2017 debut album Freudian — millions of streams, Juno and Grammy nominations, A-list fans in Stevie Wonder, Erykah Badu and Coldplay's Chris Martin — painted him as an overnight success to the general public. What followed was a whirlwind few years where he released his sophomore album, 2019's Case Study 01, lent his voice to a number of other artists' tracks including his biggest hit to date singing on Justin Bieber's smash hit "Peaches," and courted some controversy over racial comments he made on an Instagram Live. Super-stardom came to Caesar much faster than he had anticipated, and while he had reaped many of its benefits, he also felt unsatisfied by fame in some ways. "I was waiting on a feeling that turned out to be fleeting," Caesar explained on CBC's Q in April. 

That void he felt fuels the songs on Caesar's third full-length, Never Enough. Written in solitude during the height of COVID-19 lockdowns, Caesar also took on more production work while digging deeper lyrically to explore his relationship with love, faith and his newfound fame, as he sings to himself on "Vince Van Gogh": "It's beautiful, just don't stop being you/ It's imperative that you remember this." That forward-looking mentality didn't come easily, though, as Caesar mourns what once was, yearning for simpler times on "Toronto 2014," "If only I could find my way through space-time/ Back to when I was happy being me." His strength continues to be in the love ballad department, when he pines for old loves on "Valentina" and "Always," tracks where he reflects on how his actions have impacted some of those closest to him. 

Never Enough is also Caesar's most sonically experimental album. It originally started off as an entirely folk album, but Caesar soon brought in elements of his signature R&B sound to bridge the gap between his past and future identities. The results are flourishes of psychedelia, country and folk throughout the album, broadening Caesar's musical palette into something that sounds bigger and more expansive while incorporating some of his most personal insights. Never Enough is not a neat display of life lessons or mottos to live by — it can feel messy and confusing at times — but getting to see an artist's inner struggles spill out in a way that's compelling, and oftentimes beautiful, is exactly why Caesar continues to be such a fascinating artist to follow.  

Notable players:

Never Enough features four guest vocalists: Mustafa, serpentwithfeet, Omar Apollo and Ty Dolla $ign. (This is a significant contrast to the features of Freudian, all of which were women. Never Enough only features male guests.) Behind the scenes, he employed a number of producers including Mark Ronson, Rafael Saadiq, BadBadNotGood, Simon On The Moon (Mustafa, 6lack), Rami (Britney Spears, Nicki Minaj), Sir Nolan (Selena Gomez, Kehlani), and Caesar's oldest collaborators, Jordan Evans and Matthew Burnett. Sir Dylan, a producer and songwriter who has worked with SZA, Solange, the Weeknd and more, executive produced the album. 

Standout songs: 

'Valentina' 

Co-written and co-produced by Caesar's younger brother, Zachary Simmonds, "Valentina" is not your typical love song. Over a synthesized beat, which gives the track a late-night moody vibe, Caesar pines over a woman who is in a relationship, but assures her, "From the first time I looked in your eyes/ I knew that I would find a way/ To make you mine."

'Always' 

A more traditional R&B ballad, "Always" is a beautiful breakup ballad that taps into one of Caesar's strengths: tugging on the heartstrings of listeners. "I don't want things to change," he sings, yearning for a relationship that's already slipped through his fingers. But instead of letting that feeling sour into something malevolent, he reminds his ex that he'll always be there for her. 

Recommended if you like:

Frank Ocean, Miguel, SZA. 

Summer activity pairing:

Caesar's late-night confessions are best experienced lying in an open field, star-gazing at the constellations where you can contemplate life, love and who you're meant to be. 

Don't miss Shortlist Summer: a season-long showcase of the 10 albums shortlisted for the 2023 Polaris Music Prize. Read the weekly Polaris Shortlist Shortcut feature at cbcmusic.ca/polaris and tune into The Ten radio special every Sunday night at cbc.ca/listen.