Words by Annie Barber
MAMI UMAMI are making moves in the Swedish underground music scene, and with songs like their latest, ‘(Don’t) think I like you’, it is easy to see why. On the single, Jaquelin Elamiri (Miss Mami) and Leonard Furby balance club, dance, hip-hop, and pop influences to make a genre-bending and singular track.
The song is grounded in a shared experience between the pair, in which both of their respective partners left them for long-distance jobs. The duo explore their complex feelings in this cathartic and captivating track. The single moves through the five stages of grief, charting the mourning of their relationships.
Zigzagging between dark moments in the verses to synth-heavy and upbeat choruses, ‘(Don’t) think I like you’ perfectly captures the rollercoaster of emotions involved in the grieving of a relationship. With soaring moments, contrasting vocals, and a driving beat, the song certainly is dance floor ready.
Elaborating on the track, the duo say, “This song basically wrote itself in our shared heads in about 20 minutes after our partners had left us for work in other cities. Of course, we were incredibly happy for them — they’d both gotten amazing job offers. But no matter how happy we were for them, the sadness of being without them was huge.
Somewhere along the way, the ego takes over, and the sadness turns into this weird, completely unclear and totally unjustified kind of anger that says: I CAN DO THIS ON MY OWN AND, I (DON’T) THINK I LIKE YOU ANYWAY..
The parentheses in the title are the whole feeling. The love is actually bigger than ever, and all you really want is to be in the same room as the person you love. Sometimes, though, a sweaty studio and a friend to talk to will have to be enough.”
Although born out of two negative experiences, ‘(Don’t) think I like you’ is an intoxicating infusion of genres and makes for a very exciting listen.
Leave a Reply