I've been wanting to write about Cassels for a while, but I've had the very welcome problem of having so much other more recent music to write about that I haven't been able to get to them.
Cassels are an Oxford based two-piece. The first of their tracks I heard was Hating is Easy which features on an EP released in 2015. Since then they've put out three albums (two in 2017 alone). Unfortunately I haven't seen anything new being put out since 2019 but I see that they're planning a (rescheduled) UK tour later in 2021 which should be excellent.
They describe their sound as "music for misanthropes and malcontents", and I like it ... I'll just leave that there 😇 Cassels' music is heavy, bordering on punky at times, and also very knowing, frequently featuring lyrics which make you sit up whether due to a sprinkling of controversy or a burst of wry humour. This band are most often a cathartic listen, satisfying and honest.
It was difficult to pick one song to write about here, but in the end I went for The Weight, the first track from one of Cassel's 2017 albums (Foreword).
The track starts with the sound of a ticking metronome, creating an appropriate sense of mounting tension. Then after allowing a single guitar to play through a key riff, it's into the trademark noise and fuzz, pounded drums and plenty of cymbal crashes. And finally things drop away to allows for casually delivered vocals delivering a really well observed and slightly caustic commentary on coping with modern life: the "weight of having to be a real person - what a burden."
I keep coming back to the delivery. To me, as well as coming up with a catchy and quite fun piece of music, the band have somehow created a believable character; a figure who stands amid the swirling noise and chaos revealing his thoroughly modern anxieties. He's left alone at the end, sounding thin and slightly defeated. It's relatable.
There are so many moments in this song where Cassels get things spot on that I have to avoid the temptation to just type out most of the lyrics. The song is now about four years old, but it all rings so true, unfortunately, and I think this is what appeals to me: the combination of a thoroughly satisfying listen musically, with words worth hearing.
"Budget airline to warmer climes, and I recycle so it's fine"