Mad Love (Mabel song)

She wrote the song with Camille Purcell and its producer Steve Mac, wanting to express mutual attraction in a simple way.

The song was released by Polydor Records on 7 June 2019 as the album's second single and received generally positive reviews from music critics.

The accompanying music video, directed by Marc Klasfeld, shows the singer performing choreography with a float of dancers.

[1] The singer recalls that there was "something positive in the air" because of her intention to eschew her tendency to write intense breakup songs in favour of "a happy one about that fun moment when you meet somebody and you're just into each other.

"[2] Mabel wrote the song with a nightclub setting in mind and experimented with the simplest way to express mutual romantic liking without being boring.

[1][2] She cites the lyric "Mad love" as the "spark of the song" with it being one of her personal catchphrases, and "Put it / Don't let me down, do-do-down" as one of the lines that came first during the process.

In an interview for Genius, the singer explained: "I grew up in an era of listening to 'Independent Women' and 'Survivor' and had songs that made me feel powerful as a woman, and I could do anything.

[14] A 15-second snippet of the track premiered on TikTok the following day, allowing users to use the clip in their own videos ahead of the single's official release.

Robin Murray of Clash called the song "a bold return" and "a blast of positive energy in an increasingly dark world, with its searing melodies underlining Mabel's astonishing promise".

[22] Writing in their column for Billboard, Gab Ginsberg and Jason Lipshutz commented, "Impossibly, 'Mad Love' is almost even catchier" than "Don't Call Me Up".

[23] NME's Hannah Mylrea likened the track's "formula of brilliantly brash lyrics and a powerhouse chorus" to those of "Don't Call Me Up".

"[24] Gavin Haynes wrote in The Guardian that the production is "best described as 'Spotify'" and the lyrics "feel like they've been heavily workshopped to ride the line between teen-pleasing filth and daytime radio play", but "with a quiet-loud dynamic tighter than a duck's designer vagina, it's a hit.

"[10] In The Observer, Kitty Empire bemoaned that songs with similarly sexual lyrics already existed in large numbers and Mabel's "model" of "Rihanna's husky, catch-in-the-throat R&B" was "overdone when everyone from Anne-Marie to Zara Larsson affects the same sexpot weariness.

It was inspired by music videos the singer grew up watching that were "just about sexy choreography, amazing lighting and sick glam.

Madeline Roth of MTV News wrote that the video "flaunts [Mabel's] chameleonic style" and has "slick dance sequences".

[40] On 1 November 2019, the singer performed "Mad Love" in a medley with "Don't Call Me Up" on German television show Luke!