Swedish House Mafia unwrap surprise holiday gift with extended mix of ‘Moth To A Flame’ with The Weeknd

by: Ross Goldenberg Dec 25, 2021

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from Swedish House Mafia.

In an unforeseen question-and-answer session in one of the trio’s Discord channels on Thanksgiving evening, Sebastian Ingrosso unloaded a slew of Swedish House Mafia bombs surrounding what the trio had looming for Paradise Again. One of those teasers was that a “dub mix” of “Moth To A Flame” with The Weeknd had been created and would be arriving much sooner than later. When “soon” was actually going to be was anyone’s guess, but packaging it as a Christmas present seemed to be the ultimate play, with Axwell, Sebastian Ingrosso, and Steve Angello proving to have a similar train of thought.

Swedish House Mafia are no strangers to lengthening past releases with extended mixes considering the five-minute promotion of “Euphoria” with Usher—their undisputed greatest piece of work to date—on their 2012 compilation LP, Until Now. Axwell had shared a six-second preview of what was assumed to be the slightly altered version of “Moth To A Flame” earlier in December, and the final product is everything we could’ve dreamed of, and then some. “Moth To A Flame” may have only undergone a few subtle changes, but each and every variation to it takes the third Paradise Again single to a further state of bliss. While the original has a gentler essence to it, the Swedes set a more uptempo pace to their latest delivery along with a minute-long entrance and ending, a much more forceful bassline, a heaven-sent progression with The Weeknd’s vocals lighting the way, and a marginal redesign to its lead, all of which collectively bestows “Moth To A Flame” with a more house-centric tone that should expectedly wind up as the version included amidst the album tour next summer.