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Jennie featuring Dominic Fike “Love Hangover”

This is not a cover of the Diana Ross classic, but rather a new song with pretty much the opposite sentiment. For Ross, a love hangover is the result of overwhelming passion and she doesn’t want a cure. For Jennie and Dominic Fike, it’s a flimsy explanation for hooking up repeatedly despite seeming to actively dislike each other. It’s another pop tune for the Age of Situationships, and as bubbly as the chorus gets, there’s a lot of cynicism at the core of this song.

But don’t get me wrong, this isn’t a dark or depressing song. The tone is closer to a modern rom-com, and their volatile relationship is played for laughs rather than drama. In rom-com logic, this is just a tumultuous stage before they inevitably truly see one another and fall in love. There’s nothing like that in this song, but the light tone suggests that’s a likely outcome. Maybe it’s not that cynical?

One more thing: There’s a recurring mini-hook in Jennie’s first verse that goes “Who sent you? Who sent you? Who sent you?” It’s melodically interesting, slowing down slightly after a few lines that seem to bounce around frenetically off the beat. But there’s something so funny to me about that line – it doesn’t quite fit in context, and comes off kinda bug-eyed and paranoid. It reminds me a bit of the old Deborah Cox R&B hit with the (unintentionally?) hilarious chorus hook “how did you get here? / nobody’s supposed to be here.”

Buy it from Amazon.