Album review: Cassyette – This World F*cking Sucks

The words stamped across the front of Cassyette’s debut might have a gloomy sentiment, but she has a point. While sadness has leached into her vivacious nu-gen sound from the off – her 2022 mixtape was called Sad Girl, after all – there are points on this record where she delves into the depths of grief following her father’s sudden death in 2021 in a more significant way than ever.

Despite this, however, this is not an album to stick on when you’re curled up on the floor crying. Instead, it’s an album to get you off your knees and roaring loud, whether that’s a roar of pain or joy.

The Essex star’s already demonstrated that she’s adept at crafting a banger that plays in your brain on loop for hours, but she’s somehow improved the recipe of whatever secret sauce goes in these songs. The biting Ipecac creates a mighty impact in less than two and a half minutes, while Go!’s lithe riffs are impossible to listen to without dancing or at least nodding your head.

Other songs are more flawed, however – Sugar Rush’s irresistible groove is let down by a stock chorus, and Friends In Low Places is sweet in sentiment, but doesn’t represent the best Cassyette can do.

It's when she’s working with more difficult and complex emotions that she creates beautiful things. Four Leaf Clover’s tender musings on grief, love and superstition is certainly moving, but it’s When She Told Me that steals the show. Its thunderous riffs making her story of the moment she learned her father had died feel achingly visceral, like there’s a sense of violence in how strong her pain must have been.

Nonetheless, she’s continuing to blossom here and while it’s true that the world’s a steaming pile of dog shit sometimes, she’s still finding something beautiful in it.

Verdict: 4/5

For fans of: Nova Twins, VUKOVI, Hot Milk

This World Fucking Sucks is out August 23 via 23 Recordings.