‘Hush Hush’ is the lead track from Nessi’s upcoming EP Twentythreeyears, so named because of the number’s significance to the German singer/songwriter. Now, for me the age of 23 reminds me of my first year in London, a bitter break-up and a beautifully hot summer. For Nessi, the number’s significance spans from the number on Michael Jordan’s vest, to her favourite song by Jimmy Eat World, to the age at which she began writing the EP.
So where does ‘Hush Hush’ fit into this? From her compassionate yet heartbroken tone, Nessi appears to be addressing a secret lover who takes her for granted. “Let’s pretend I don’t know it, let’s just pretend I don’t know shit,” she sings, defeatedly, over an absorbing mix of acoustic guitar strums and electronic beats. To start one recalls shades of Plain White T’s smash hit, ‘Hey There Delilah’, but then Nessi opens up and the track expands. “These walls come crashing down on us,” she sings as a wall of folk-pop synthness envelops her. Refreshingly, she doesn’t opt for that big American wail so favoured by many pop artists, and consequently ‘Hush Hush’ has a naive quality to it, the songstress sometimes whispering, her voice sometimes fading, as if in a bittersweet daydream.
Nessi’s emotional eloquence is refreshing for an artist set to appeal to a wide audience, and ‘Hush Hush’ is a work that exudes a solemn tenderness, while still radiating that uplifiting pop buzz. Going by this taste, her debut EP should prove to be a remarkable listen indeed.
