Review

Song Review: Jessi – Nunu Nana

Posted on by 11 Comments

With few exceptions, a title like “Nunu Nana” tells me exactly what to expect from the song. It’s unlikely to be the kind of melodically robust pop track I tend to gravitate toward. Its chorus will almost certainly be a repetitive jumble of nonsense words tied to a rhythmic beat drop. And in this regard, Jessi’s new single doesn’t defy expectations. Though I’ve been a fan of her persona for some time, I can’t say that I’ve often connected with her music.

Nunu Nana (눈누난나) continues along the same route as previous singles Who Dat B and Drip, both released under PSY’s P Nation label. While I’ll always appreciate a dose of killer Jessi attitude, this whole swag-happy phase she’s going through isn’t for me. Nunu Nana has a few nice moments – mostly during the pre and post chorus melodies – but overall it feels like a lot of posing and twerking without much of a song to back it up.

Jessi doesn’t always get the respect she deserves as a vocalist. Not only is she technically solid, but she’s able to infuse her vocals with incredible character. That unique personality salvages much of Nunu Nana. I love her raspy tone during the song’s more vocal-heavy moments. She really commands attention. Unfortunately, that blazing charisma is wasted on an unimaginative “put your hands in the air” hook that staggers over a lifeless beat. At one point, she declares “I’m trying to give you something more.” But, Nunu Nana offers no real surprises. It makes me wonder if this new P Nation venture was really worth it. Sure, PSY’s collected a strong roster of talent. But, the agency has yet to deliver anything we haven’t heard before.

 Hooks 7
 Production 7
 Longevity 8
 Bias 7
 RATING 7.25

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11 thoughts on “Song Review: Jessi – Nunu Nana”

  1. I have just about the exact same sentiments. I love Jessi the persona. Charisma by the shed load. Camera magnet. She stole every scene in Unnies that she was in. Jessi the music, notsomuch.

    This song is so totally not my style regardless of what language it is in. I had the cc clicked on and true to this style’s current expectations there is a shed load of swearing and language in it. Besides the cooler-sexier-hotter-richer than you swagger, I just can’t do so much swearing. It just puts me in such a nasty bad mood, and I just don’t need to be influenced that way by choosing to listen to such music. I don’t know how the Korean cleaned up for the music shows, but the English “FU” cleaned up to a “that’s you”.

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  2. Yep! You pretty much covered it– I loved her on Sisters’ Slam Dunk and have a real soft spot for her, but her music kind of leaves me cold (her voice is SO good, though). Definitely not where my tastes are, musically.

    P-Nation has been a real head-scratcher, hasn’t it? I don’t really get what the individual artists are doing with their careers with these once-in-awhile singles. I really, REALLY liked Hyuna’s “Flower Shower” and Dawn’s single showed some promise, but where have they been since then? Scant release schedule and no full albums for their top-tier stars… maybe I’ve got a different view of the Kpop industry than what it actually is, but it seems like they’re either stretched thin or not interested in getting their stars working on the music stage, other than to support… like, whatever else they’re doing.

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    • Hyuna has done photoshoots, and CFs, last year she went to a tons of festivals, Dawn I believe he has done some photoshoots too and is designing a clothes line.
      The only Pnation artist actually releasing music is Chrush.

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  3. My initial opinion of the song was about the same as the review – it’s fine, a solid seven – but it’s been knocked down to a five for reasons below.
    While I was writing my original comment, I looked at the credits in the description of the music video to see who contributed and saw that SEVEN PEOPLE are credited for the lyrics. How??? You have seven people write a song and all they could come up with was a few stock cliche hip-hop lines haphazardly strung together? What happened? You had Jessi, Psy, DoubleK, and Penomeco all involved. The song could’ve been great just because of that roster behind it but this is all we got. What a disappointment.

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    • I saw that, too. I just can’t fathom how it takes that many writers to come up with this:

      “nunnununanna
      Put’ em up in the air
      nuna nuna
      Like this oh nanana
      nuna nuna
      eeeei”

      Like, did one write the “nu” while the other wrote the “na”???

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      • I showed my friend these comments and he said “If that much acclaimed writers can only do so much, I can write entire albums”..

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