Let me preface this by saying, yes I'm late. I'm always late for the hype train. I kinda just walk along the tracks and hope that I reach the hype station.
Canada has afforded us many gifts in the last few decades. Aubrey “Drake” Graham, early 2000s Justin Bieber and Alessia Cara to name a few.
And this August, Daniel Caesar blessed us with the greatest gift of all. Freudian. The debut album of the Canadian singer-songwriter is an ode to relationships: the new, the old and the broken. Coming in at only 44 minutes it’s the perfect thing to binge on a commute home, or on a commute to work or in your room everyday for a week at full volume.
His songs are a mix of soul and R&B with the vocal stylings of someone brought up on gospel music. Every element of his music works in collaboration with his satiny voice to preach the gospels of love, lust, and the pure emotion of romantic relationships.
1. He's the only singer I know who can say "throw that ass back" and make it sound romantic.
With a feature from Syd from The Internet, Take Me Away is a mellow ode to a new relationship. Not only is this girl someone he can “take it easy” with, “she loves to top him off”. He perfectly captures the balance between like and lust.
2. His songs aren’t always formatted like conventional songs but I’m here for it.
Loose: Verse - Outro
Neu Roses (Transgressor’s Song): Verse - Verse
Freudian: Verse - Bridge - Verse - Skit - Silence - Verse
Transform: Intro - Pre chorus - Chorus - Verse - Verse - Chorus - Bridge - Outro
The title song of the album comes in at 10:02 and about two minutes of that is complete silence. (You can skip to 6:11 if you don’t want to sit through it)
3. His hooks are pure poetry and will stick in your head like an envelope sticks to ... the other side of the envelope.
We Find Love describes a relationship that’s crumbling apart before someone’s eyes. And yet it’s one of my favorite songs from the album. Daniel isn’t one to waste words and the chorus only appears twice in the song but when the choir croons “We find love, we get up/ And we fall down, we give up” in the final chorus you can’t help but get into it.
4. He makes curse words sound like the Queen’s English.
“Don't come at me on some weak shit
It's time you stopped displaying weakness, oh, oh”
(Freudian, Freudian)
I shan't approach you engaging in subpar shit. I mean how could I when you say it like that.
5. He’s not afraid to get in his feelings, and then take those feelings and make you feel them.
Blessed, one of the only songs that follows a conventional format tells the story of someone in a strained relationship with someone that they have strong feelings for. The opening lines set the mood and show off the “new love” vibe of the song.
Everywhere that I go, everywhere that I be
If you were not surrounding me with your energy
I don't wanna be there, don't wanna be anywhere
Any place that I can't feel you, I just wanna be near you
He doesn’t want to be without this person, because on a metaphysical level their presence in necessary to him. The openness and dependency of young love draws you in and makes his music relatable. Even if you haven’t been in a romantic relationship, Blessed speaks to the complexities of a connection with someone that’s become a part of you. Even though you love them “sometimes it gets unhealthy” and you both “do wrong”. (This song could drag me into a tangent about how music glorifies toxic relationships but that’s a story for a different time.)
Overall Freudian is a recall to the refreshing emotionality of love songs that felt like they were for individuals and people were able to point out what they liked about you and why.
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