Back in 2017 London-based duo Cassels released their debut album Epithet. Comprised of nine tracks, the siblings presented a sometimes stripped back, sometimes loud and in your face shot of punk and grunge. Packed with social commentary, the LP was extremely raw, which indeed contributed to its charm.

With a sophomore album in the works, Cassels have returned with a new track titled ‘A Snowflake In Winter’. This time around singer Jim Beck is reflective, giving an honest self-critique about his own liberal ideas and reactions to the state of the politics and the world. Musically the track pumps from subtle to raging and back again, creating a consistently contrasting moods throughout the song’s three minute duration.

Touching on the song in a press statement, Jim Beck wrote:

“I wrote the words for this song around the time of Trump’s inauguration. Like many people, I was rather shocked and dismayed by the result of the presidential election, not least because I’d spent the previous weeks watching erudite takedowns & reading expertly-worded polemics which, to my mind, had completely blown the now-President’s chance of election and left his reputation in tatters.

I, like many other people, had been buried so deep inside an echo chamber and so far up my own arse, that I’d failed to notice a lot of people don’t think the same way that I do. By surrounding myself in a comforting and comfortable liberal bubble populated by fellow circle-jerkers I’d been blindsided by events which didn’t unfold in the way I’d expected them to.

The same thing happened with Brexit; I engaged with opinions I agreed with, all the while getting little hits of dopamine which made me feel like things were moving in the right direction. But they weren’t. And what did I do about it? I shared a f*cking Guardian article on social media; I regurgitated opinions to like-minded friends at the pub; I carried on living my life the same way I always had while proclaiming that ‘things needed to change’; I failed.

In summary, this is a song about the failure of the liberal elite and namby-pamby snowflakes like myself. This song is probably about you. This song will change nothing. I hope you like it—please share it on social media if you do.”