It's been a while since Anastacia has released new music. Her latest album was a collection of lesser known gems performed live and chosen by fans. It was released last year.
Anastacia has pretty much remained out on the road. She’s currently still touring, but along the way she got signed to Universal in Germany, which has made it possible for her to release the songs that she's been working on. "Caught In The Middle" is the first single from her upcoming album, “Evolution”, for which the artwork was released today, together with dropping the single. A lot of people were anticipating a new single and judging from the attention this release is getting, there is a clear hope that this song will mark her return to the European market.
In her early beginnings, Anastacia brought something new to the scene. She managed to merge funk with soul and rock music. Her squeezed vocals reminded everyone of Taylor Dane and her trademark sunglasses gave her strong image. The glasses are still there, sometimes, but she’s been through a true transition when it comes to her music and has tried various styles.
With “Caught In The Middle”, she seems to return a little to those days. The funk has gone, but the song would fit on the tracklist of her first two albums without anyone noticing it’s a song released some 17 years later. I’m especially happy that she didn’t try to incorporate any of the trends of today in this song. That doesn’t mean that “Caught In The Middle” is not contemporary though, but it’s done in a way that it remains pretty timeless.
I really like the song, even though I had some problems getting into the first verse. It just took me a few tries to get a feel for that. The chorus, though, is very catchy and immediately gets stuck in my head. The response among music fans has mainly been positive (on European music fans forums), which makes me hopeful that she will be back. I really think she left a bit of a gap when she moved away from her original identity as an artist, but luckily no one has been able to take her spot.
