Matilda’s upbeat debut with “Macarena” is surprisingly a lot of fun

Matilda recently made their debut with “Macarena“, which yes, is the same title as the viral hit song from decades past.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3LoC3dkXl4

Dammit.

This was supposed to be some mediocre, semi-cringe debut from a rookie group so that I could write a snarky Deep Reviews article for and go immediately to sleep having spent a grand total of 60 seconds thinking about it. But no, Matilda couldn’t let me do that, because “Macarena” was actually an upbeat, fun, and spunky effort.

The concept and visuals were surprisingly polished from a girl group I’d never heard of from a company I don’t yet know of, as it seemed like a typical ‘fresh’ concept with a dance-in-the-box music video. In this case ‘typical’ is not so much an insult as it is surprise that they managed to create something that like what early Wonder Girls would’ve done, and if you told me this was a girl group debut from a major label, I could believe that.

“Macarena” brings a lot of energy to the table, and the multiple pace switches and prominent chorus-line vocals would understandably have you thinking it would fit with a musical, for better or worse. The chorus wasn’t instantly catchy, nor do I think any part of the song is something that’ll be a memorable hook song type of thing, but it’s one of those tracks that’s impossible to not listen all the way through once it starts.

In the end, the debut achieves its goal by definitively marking Matilda as a group to pay attention to going forward.