Spiegelbild

Released in 2014, Spiegelbild marks a significant pivot for Cassandra Steen toward a more mainstream, pop-oriented sound. Following her successful collaboration with Tim Bendzko on 'Unter die Haut,' Steen enlisted Bendzko to oversee much of the songwriting and co-production for this fourth studio effort. The result is an album that largely moves away from the neo-soul and urban R&B foundations of her work with Glashaus or her solo debut, opting instead for a 'Schlager-adjacent' soul-pop hybrid. Produced primarily by Christian 'Crada' Kalla, the record features clean, digital-forward production with occasional acoustic flourishes. Despite its commercial polish and a respectable debut at number 42 on the German charts, the album proved polarizing among critics who missed the soulful depth of her earlier releases. It stands as a document of the mid-2010s German pop landscape, where the lines between R&B, soul, and radio-pop became increasingly blurred.