Mabel Celebrates Friendship on Pokémon Collaboration “Take It Home”

For much of the past year, Pokémon has been rolling out its 25th anniversary celebration with songs from major artists like Katy Perry and Post Malone, leading up to the release of Pokémon 25: The Album this August. Joining these major names is BRIT Award-winning pop singer Mabel, with her new song “Take It Home,” and accompanying music video.

The bouncy, jubilant track plays into the platonic values of the Pokémon world, celebrating the loyalty and devotion of a close friendship. Mabel pledges her devotion to her friend and partner and revels in their shared capacities.

The song leaves plenty of space for Mabel’s vocals, with a clanking percussion track and little else during the initial sung-rapped verses, blossoming into piano chords for the limber pre-chorus, with a drop to lead into a bombastic chorus. Bouncing bass and backing vocals add breadth and body to a melody ready-made for stadium show shout-alongs and Spotify hits playlists. Of-the-moment production tricks abound, as the melody is accentuated by pitched-shifted vocal lines that are slathered with effects and placed low enough in the mix that they sound as much like a comprehensible human voice as they do a synth plug-in. In the second half of the song, Mable shows off her impressive vocal chops, adding in runs and octave-spanning fills in the final choruses.

The music video sees Mabel fall asleep on the bed in her hotel room after seeing Pokemon on the TV, waking up to find a Jigglypuff running through the hotel hallway. Chasing the Pokémon, she discovers the hotel has been transformed into a gravity-defying realm filled with magical plants and lights atop the backdrop of the hotel. Mabel continues to play with the Jigglypuff, a Pokémon known to love singing, through the duration of the video, and she encounters a Pikachu as well.

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Sam Seliger Subscriber

Sam is a journalism intern at Glasse Factory and a Sophomore at Columbia University in the City of New York, where he is pursuing a major in American Studies. Sam is also the Head of American Music for Columbia’s WKCR-FM radio station, where he hosts two weekly shows. He previously served as co-Editor-in-Chief of Pressing the Future.

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Sam Seliger Subscriber

Sam is a journalism intern at Glasse Factory and a Sophomore at Columbia University in the City of New York, where he is pursuing a major in American Studies. Sam is also the Head of American Music for Columbia’s WKCR-FM radio station, where he hosts two weekly shows. He previously served as co-Editor-in-Chief of Pressing the Future.