Wednesday May 21, 2025
Mark Cassius has spent over two decades in and out of the limelight, a troubadour caught between indie rock’s rough edges and the softer contours of singer-songwriter introspection.
With Change Your Mind, the man behind Neo Stereo steps up with a track that feels like a postcard from a quieter place — a song that invites you in with its breezy, swaying rhythm, then pulls you under with a lyric that won’t let go.
Recorded at The Grove Studios with Jackson Barclay, Change Your Mind is deceptively simple — a soulful drum groove, a piano line that wavers like a hesitant thought, and Cassius’s voice, warm and weary, delivering the refrain “Excuse me while I change my mind” like a confession that tastes more bitter than sweet.
There’s a sense of restlessness here, a man searching for clarity in a world that keeps feeding him static. The opening verse lingers in that soft, ambiguous space where introspection flirts with disillusionment: “Times a changing and I have to say / Feeling friendly and I don’t know why.” It’s a line that drifts by like an afterthought, but there’s a weight behind it, a subtle suggestion that Cassius has been walking this tightrope for far too long. Musically, the track is a slow burn.
The drums keep a steady, unhurried pulse, while the chorus introduces a melody so sweet it almost undercuts the disquiet in the lyrics. But that’s the point — Cassius isn’t here to shout. He’s here to remind you that the most dangerous truths are the ones that slip by under the guise of something pretty. The bridge, with its descending chord structure, is where the real ache sets in, a brief, luminous moment where the song opens up, then tightens again, as if Cassius is drawing in a breath before letting it all out.
And then the refrain comes back around, that gentle but insistent plea: “Change your looks, change your smile / I don’t know and I wonder why.” It’s the kind of line that feels like a throwaway until you realise it’s been circling in your head for hours, a lyric that leaves you questioning whether you’ve ever truly looked at yourself.
Change Your Mind isn’t trying to be a grand statement. It’s a late-night conversation with yourself, a small, quiet reckoning set to a groove that keeps you swaying even as the ground shifts beneath you.
