I’ll be honest: a shiver runs down my spine when I see a song title like “Eenie Meeny Miny Moe.” Nursery rhymes have been a part of pop music for decades, but K-pop likes to go overboard with the approach, utilizing their sing-song melodies for the basis of an entire song. Fifty Fifty’s quirky Pookie enjoyed moderate success in Korea earlier this year, and judging by this new song title I feared their agency learned all the wrong lessons from that.
Fortunately, Eeny Meeny Miny Moe (가위바위보) isn’t all sing-song nonsense. In fact, the nursery rhyme is relegated to brief moments during the pre-chorus. I’d rather not have it at all, but the surrounding segments are quite enjoyable — if bland — pop. The chorus exists in a long lineage of cute, melodic girl group tracks. Spice it up with more interesting production and you might even have the basis for a Lovelyz or Oh My Girl song. Instead, much of Eeny Meeny Miny Moe opts for a beige palette, soft and unassuming when it should be pushing bolder and weirder.
When it comes down to it, the song’s strengths aren’t captivating enough to compensate for the irritating sing-talk that forces its way into the track. For a nursery rhyme style to work for me, a song must either recontextualize it or surround its offending moments with material so exciting that I’m willing to gloss over the sing-song nature. Eeny Meeny Miny Moe is too polite to do either of those things.
| Hooks | 8 |
| Production | 8 |
| Longevity | 8 |
| Bias | 7 |
| RATING | 7.75 |
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
This song reminds me so much of ICHILLIN’s Draw — both songs with a cute palette but they both have that one incredibly cloying or annoying part that kinda leaves a sour taste (the “ringa ringa roses” interpolation for Draw and the “eeny meeny miny moe” part here). This one is a more successful version of Draw, but not by that much, I absolutely love the second chorus and wish they utilized it more. I also enjoyed the build-up with each chorus and wish they went all out. Sigh, beggars can’t be choosers, right?
Rating’s the same.
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In addition to eenie meenie miny mo, they throw in an hana dul set and kawi bawi bo for good measure too.
Pass.
…. ah, Yoonmirae’s Kawi Bawi Bo from years ago fondly came to my mind. I haven’t listened to it in years, but today, today I think is a good day to share it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAzdJCPdkJ4
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Fifty Fifty continue to go for a very tame version of a great song. I think their aim is to craft something that will get stuck in kids’ heads and repeated ad nauseum, but won’t have parents turning it off. (I call out kids and parents because I saw Fifty Fifty in concert and the audience was grade-school aged).
Still, this formula works on me. It’s bright pop music that I can loop for an hour and work over, or crank up for 3 minutes and get lost in.
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Yawn, when’s ablume coming back?
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Hopefully soon. I want to see something new and fresh from them!
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Spent all night trying to figure out what it sounded like and it turns out it’s Ive’s Kitsch.
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Teenage me would’ve eaten this up. I love this vibe. But current me wishes they went harder with the more attitude driven parts of the song and had a more dramatic delivery of the chorus. Telephone sound effects were a nice touch. I have a higher tolerance than most who follow the blog for nursery rhymes so I wasn’t bothered in the slightest. “I know you like my skittlez” definitely turns me off though lol
Judging by their releases since the lawsuit situation, the company didn’t really want to shift the group’s Sonic trajectory too much. It’s certainly more juvenile than the tracks in the very beginning, but post cupid fifty fifty was probably always going to end up here. The lesson I learned is that aran and sio not being in the group was a bigger hit to them than I expected. Hana and yew. Are decent vocalists but they don’t have the dynamic of Aran and Sio. Aran and Sio’s tones are distinct individually but also have a satisfying contrast. Ultimately, I bring this up to say that their tracks need to be stronger due to their reconfiguration but have a taken a rather slight) downturn.
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