Mimi Webb is back with another heartbreak song, and you might be wondering how she still happens to have original songs to sing about all the things that can go wrong with love – and it’s not because she has a million songs (she doesn’t!) – but she still does.
In “Roles Reversed,” Webb sings about giving your all to save someone from heartbreak, only to end up being the one that’s broken. Yes, it’s a brutal track, and her unique voice perfectly conjures up all the right emotions.
Listening to the song, you hear an artist that’s come a long way from “if that’s what love’s about / then I’m so good without.” And even though the song tells a story that’s devastating, there’s none of the anger we see in “House On Fire,” and none of the snark doubtfulness we just recently witnessed in “Red Flags.” “Roles Reversed” is just pure grief.
“Your heart was black and blue / The night I jumped into you / I nursed you to health / I wanted to help / But broke myself fixing you,” she sings of finding and loving a broken lover “back to life,” as Celine Dion would sing.
Prepping for the release of her highly anticipated debut album Amelia – out March 3, Webb has been dropping hits after hits. Within a month of its release, “Red Flags” has garnered over 19 million streams and continues to climb the charts currently peaking at No. 30 at US Top 40 radio and No. 35 at Hot AC radio.
If “Roles Reversed” follows the trend already set by previous singles, we’ll be seeing it racing up the charts and being played multiple times on the radio.
Written by Webb, Connor McDonough, Riley McDonough, Toby McDonough, Ryan Daly, CASTLE and produced by Connor McDonough & Ryan Daly, the single is the perfect follow-up to “Red Flags.” While “Red Flags” is about loving someone despite the clear bad signals they give off, “Roles Reversed” is about loving someone at their worst and have them leave you for someone else the moment they’re back on their feet again.
Accompanied by a music video, which premiered hours after the song was officially released, we see Webb visualizing the lyrics by showing us a broken lover lying in the hospital.
By the time we got to the first chorus, the guy has traded in his bland hospital garment and breathing tubes for a leather jacket and a confident attitude.
There’s a bit of anger at the end of the video that didn’t make it into the lyrics of the song, as we see Webb rip up pictures and throw them into the fire.
All in all, “Roles Reversed” is another big serve from Webb.
