band: Cassie album: Sing About Me year: 2012 genres: post-rock origin: Finland
YOU WILL SING ABOUT
THIS ALBUM
Last year the world of underground music was
shaken by a small short EP entitled “Something You Always Wanted to Hear”. And
the title was authentic, the EP shed sounds our ears were waiting for since a
long time. The minds behind it were Cassie,
a young Finland based band, which saw the light of day just in self 2011. The
impact of three-track “Something You Always Wanted to Hear” was so that you can
find a video on youtube of some guys from a school in Taiwan covering “Tin Cans
and Strings”, perhaps the most outstanding song out the EP. In this blog, the
EP peaks at #8 of the best albums of 2011. So, why did the world worship Cassie in the last year? Well, the
reason is a really deep blend of beautiful sounds whose roots seem to be
attached to post-rock music, but this time vocals are added. A reckless deed!
Lots of songs from respected huge names of post-rock are fucked-up due to the
use of guest vocals, but I can ensure that this is not the case. In fact,
vocals are one of the aces of Cassie.
It took just one year for the band to release
their first full-length album, just one year but it is a much waited album
though. The title is “Sing About Me” and this time Cassie delight us with 5 songs running 34 minutes of completely new
material. The album is set to be released on September 6th, a first
single was up not many weeks ago for free download on the their bandcamp page. The
good news are that Cassie have not
changed the formula of their sound. “Sing About Me” is as catching as “Something
You Always Wanted to Hear”. Every song in this new album creates such a
beautiful atmosphere. Although, the backbone of the music lies into the
post-rock framework, Cassie is far
of being completely bounded and defined by this tag. The whole atmosphere and
mood of the album seems to carry the listener through different soundscapes,
while one of the most prevalent features seems to be the contrast, the sudden
changes, the motion between calm and tension, this is how clean guitars meet
aggressive riffs in sudden instants. The same pattern appears in most of the
songs, they begin with quiet sound to acutely turn the atmosphere into chaos.
Shoegazer effects ornament these riffs bringing a quite beautiful sound.
Personally I love this kind of guitars, I actually rather the sound of them in
this album than in the EP, take a listen to the ones in “Alex”, where pedals make
a nice work. The high tone guitars can take lots of post-rock bands into mind,
but this time also remind me of northamerican outfit Oceana in their metalcore debut “The Tide”.
Of course, the sound of Cassie is blessed with the sweet vocals of Sofia Thuren. Her voice
is a bit similar to the one of the singer from german pop act Wonderwall. Thuren is poignant and
expressive. She fits exactly with the emotional impact demanded by the sound of
the album. I mean, a soft melancholic voice typical of shoegazer bands or an
aggressive guttural growling would not fit in Cassie’s music. Thuren sounds melancholic in most of the time,
especially in the beginning of opening track “Whalers” but also sounds desperate
in the end of “Alex”. Every moment involves interesting lyrics related with
tragic love scenes, just the same way of “Tin Cans and Strings”. However, in a
similar way that Anathema or Slowdive do it, Cassie shows some light in “Deep Sea Documentaries”. This song is
actually the most dynamic track in the album, a clean song leaded by Thuren’s performance,
complemented by a beautiful cello in the background. A trumpet also joins the
atmosphere in “Golden”, a melancholic trumpet that can’t help reminding The Gathering’s most resent singles
“Heroes for Ghost” and “Meltdown”.
Since the first hit-play to this album I can’t
stop listening to it. The scope of Cassie’s auditory is wide, everyone inside
post-rock, shoegaze, atmospheric rock, post-metal and lots of new affine terms
will surely enjoy this one. “Sing About Me” will not disappoint any of the fans
they have earned during the promotion of their first EP. However Cassie remains
as an underground act, hope with this new album they receive more attention
since this is, in my opinion, one of the best of 2012 so far.
Official website
Bandcamp
