[#6] Miss A - "No Mercy"

From: "Touch"
Format: EP
Released: February
Territory: South Korea
Previous Best of Appearances : #21 -"Goodbye Baby" (2011)

As much as I poke fun at JYP, and everything from his comments on K-Pop Star to his A&R decisions to his compositions, it's not as if he's completely devoid of ability. If he was then he would've never made it that far. "No Mercy" was one of his more brilliant moments this year, even if it was written by Hong Ji Sang (who, coincidentally, also wrote "Don't You Know", my favorite song from 2PM's "Hands Up") and not JYP.

If there's one song on this list that has been my jam for almost the entire year, it would be "No Mercy". I mean I liked "Lips" and "Rock N Rule", but from the beginning there was something more in "No Mercy". When I reviewed the devastation that was "Touch" earlier this year, I said that this should've been the lead single, and I stand by that.

What made me like "No Mercy" at first was the fact that it was so Miss A. It captured that playful spunk to their image, but at the same time it also channeled the mischievous sexiness that they also have. All that in one song? I'm in.

Again, there's a nice contrast between the melody and the instrumental -- the melody is smooth and feminine, but then you have this very funky, almost gritty instrumental. It's that contrast that gives the song direction, really, because individually the melody and the instrumental sound pretty flat. When they come together though, it's like getting mini explosions every measure.

It's also a very confident song. Again, with a contrast as obvious as the one here, it's very easy for one or the other to shy away -- they don't. The vocals are snappy and brave, they give the melody a nice, hard kick, but they also give it a smoothness and grace that only female vocals can give.

I also really like "No Mercy" because despite the fact that the instrumental has all this funky going in, it's such a graceful, pretty song. Which is pretty much why it became "my jam". It's something you can head-bang and dance to, courtesy of the instrumental, but it's also something that's easy to sing along to, courtesy of the melody. It's mainstream, but it's good, well-thought through and confidently delivered, mainstream. Add that to the fact that the production on this is fantastic and it's genuinely a really good song to start with, and you have magic, I tell you, magic.