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 Review: The Mamas - In The Middle

Once again, The Mamas are running in Melodifestivalen. This time, they are singing In The Middle. Before starting on the song, I must note the performance is heavily nostalgic and pretty strong.

By this point, The Mamas should be my number one active artist. I love their style and concept. While their music certainly has not fully lived up to it, that does not mean their songs are bad. In fact, they are great. Last year's Move was simply a masterpiece. In The Middle is not quite as good.

The song starts out excellently, and there is some great build. In fact, the whole song should be amazing. I blame the reason I don't enjoy it as much as Move on the arrangement. The song has all the necessary ingredients for a modern classic. An epic key change, towering vocal moments, soul elements, strong choral sections, and good percussion. The issue is that each of these elements are used randomly, not providing to the central narrative, which the song clearly is trying to have.

A stronger second phase would have helped a lot. Maybe increasing some dreamy percussion elements or a tempo shift.

That is not saying all is bad in this song. The lyrics are strong in classic The Mamas fashion, and the key change is great. In fact, when all is said and done, this song actually is not bad.

Rating: 8.5/10