In the frenzy of this Friday's musical drop - which included Chris Brown's Indigo and Mustard's Perfect Ten - Toronto singer, Daniel Caesar delivers his anticipated CASE STUDY 01. After dropping his first, deeply raw, mixtape, Freudian, back in 2017, the young musician cemented a name for himself as one of R&B's most promising poets. The effortless way in which he weaves complex and existential themes throughout his (seemingly) simple love songs, has earned him mainstream success, as well as the distinction he deserves. Now, his follow-up album provides us with even denser and riskier confronting ideas, like the battle between good and evil, life and death, loneliness, and God.
For this slightly more upbeat track (compared to others on the album), Daniel employs Pharrell to help him deliver a message based on the juxtaposition of love and loneliness, the importance of freeing yourself through your own truth, as well as the harsh distinction between life before, and after fame. On an, almost hypnotizing, softly sung and synthed-out pre-chorus; Daniel battles through his desire to be alone, and his inclination to seek companionship. Pharell sings of the beauty and hardships of love alike, urging us to unleash our inner sentiments so that everyone may be certain of our truth as he closes the song. The two gracefully intertwine deeply abstract, yet universally understood themes throughout the song, relying on one another just the right amount to deliver a perfectly harmonious track.
Quotable Lyrics:
Further from home, the unknown, is all that I know
Couldn't atone on the phone
I wish that I would be on my own, all alone
I wish that I would quit bein' stoned, be a stone
I wish that I would-
I wish that I would just be a man when I can
I wish you had the vision to follow the plan
I wish I had a reason to see you again
