Neo Stereo
HUSH HUSH BIZ SINGLE REVIEW
Ballerina Girl
Neo Stereo’s latest release, Ballerina Girl, strikes you at once as a study in contrasts. It’s the kind of track that envelops you, softly at first, then suddenly, before you know it, takes your breath away. Mark Cassius, the man behind the moniker, has delivered something that blends the intimate with the expansive, the melancholy with the electric. The opening is delicate—evocative keys played with the soft, fragile touch of someone opening a door to memories long buried. But what follows is anything but soft. Cassius has crafted a narrative about love and loss that feels deeply personal, yet universally resonant. In Ballerina Girl, he conjures the image of a woman who, with her graceful twirls and sudden departures, becomes a metaphor for all the things we cherish and lose. ‘She took it away,’ he sings repeatedly, and in those words is a bitter finality—a recognition of love’s ephemeral nature.
But what truly elevates the track is the dichotomy between the raw emotion of the lyrics and the lush production surrounding them. You feel that pull—the push and tug of something fragile wrapped in something powerful. Musically, it’s a masterclass in tension. The verses are stripped back, allowing Cassius’s vocals to take centre stage, as if we’re hearing the confessions of a man late at night, long after the party has ended. Then comes the chorus—a swelling of sound, where you hear the influence of 80s synth-pop and contemporary indie rock, with Cassius’s voice cutting through the storm like a beacon. And yet, what is most compelling about Ballerina Girl is its emotional restraint. There’s a sense that Cassius knows exactly when to hold back and when to let go, a balancing act that makes the song both haunting and cathartic. It’s a track that lingers long after it ends, much like the memories it so carefully evokes.