Like everyone else, Toronto R&B singer/songwriter Daniel Caesar -- born in suburban Scarborough and raised in further-suburban Oshawa and known to his folks as Ashton Dumar Norwill Simmonds -- had a lot of time to himself during COVID-19 lockdown.

The roster of players and producers involved in creating his third album, Never Enough, was thus "mostly me," although Caesar admitted to Complex Canada in February of 2022 that this wasn't actually much of a change-up.

"I'm not much of a 'go outside and be social' type of person and that was before the quarantine," he said. "So working on the album post-quarantine, (I'm) not really interacting with anybody else." 

Never Enough -- mostly written and produced by Caesar himself with occasional help from younger brother Zachary Simmonds and a couple of friendly ringers like Toronto jazzbos BADBADNOTGOOD and Raphael Saadiq -- is definitely more insular, introspective and experimental than its star-studded predecessor, Case Study 01, and lacks an obvious banger like his 2021 No. 1 hit collaboration with Justin Bieber, "Peaches." But if you're in the mood for a "mood" record, this mood record will get its hooks in you. It plays around a bit with the sleepy, Frank-Ocean-gone-gospel signature sound for which Caesar is known, too, folding such admitted influences as "all Radiohead," the Beatles' Abbey Road, Supertramp's Even In The Quietest Moments..., Kanye West's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy and the creepy films of Michael Haneke into the mix. There's plenty going on to keep the close listener occupied, then. Or you could just use Never Enough as makeout music. Because Daniel Caesar make great makeout music.

TRACKLISTING:

1. Ocho Rios
2. Valentina
3. Toronto 2014
4. Let Me Go
5. Do You Like Me?
6. Always
7. Cool
8. Disillusioned
9. Buyer's Remorse
10. Shot My Baby
11. Pain Is Inevitable
12. Homeiesexual
13. Vince Van Gogh
14. Superpowers
15. Unstoppable