formula of love: o + t = <3 - twice

pre-listening thoughts

• i did NOT realize hello would be whatever the hell it ended up being

scientist

• the "yeah" in the beginning is hilariously unnecessary but it makes it smiles
• ti love how subdued it is in the chorus actually like it's a lot more mellow than i was expecting it's so SWEET!! it's a very easy pop song to listen to, since it's so simplistic. there's nothing crazy, no crazy buildup, just a clear mood and beat that carries all the way through to the end.
• this is most obvious in the prechorus, where it uses a single-step escalation similar to a lot of pop songs (ex. red velvet's umpah umpah). however, where it fails in umpah umpah it succeeds here because scientist has a relatively subdued mood with not too much buildup throughout, whereas umpah umpah seems to push an escalation that isn't really needed.
• the use of changing up the final chorus in structure AND beat to help push the song along and then flowing into a dance break rather than a convention final chorus works SO WELL, keeps the song so fresh and ends it perfectly!

moonlight

• moonlight is so terribly i can't stop smiling i'm so so so so happy it makes me so happy it's such a sweet love song. it reminds me so much of a phil collins track, which is something i don't think i ever thought i'd say about ANY track in kpop
• as always, twice excel best with a stripped-back instrumental and simple vocal layering.
• the lyrics are so sweet and so cheesy: "summer never even had a chance / winter melts in your hands" like that is ADORABLE
• jeongyeon especially sounds SO wonderful here. her specific strong vocal tone really works well with the tone of the song. jihyo sounds wonderful for the same reason -- her naturally jazzy tone really adds to the retro love mood! baby, i DON'T want nobody else but you!

icon

• this is literally so excellent. i saw quite a few people say this was "jarring" but this actually fits in perfectly with the rest of twice's discography! they always have one dirty bright low synth hype song, it's just that this time it's about THEM 
• i don't know how to explain this but the lyricists did an amazing job with this one and you can tell that they paid attention to twice's career specifically, which i really appreciated! examples of this: "I took it to the top / From the start" which is true -- twice won their first ever major award under two months after debut. they have quite literally been at the top sine day 1, something essentially no other group can say
• MOMO'S VOICE IN THE CHORUS IS FUCKING INSANE. i think she delivers #attitude the best forever and always. like you hear her sing and you're like Oh yeah she SELLS it

cruel

• dirty low bass mixed with orchestral strings and one of the most cinematic bridges i've heard in a song EVER. so gorgeous
• the instrumental is surprisingly minimal during the verses and increases in layering as the song progresses. just so satisfying
• dahyun's ear for musical selection is seriously top-notch she's NEVER missed to date. she always picks EXCELLENT demos and always writes complex music and sonically interesting and buoyant lyrics
• standout member: i hear chaeyoung's "i know i drive you crazy" in my DREAMS. there's such an unapologetic, cold feel to her voice and i think it really captures the bitter reality of a breakup. there's never going to be a TRULY clean break. what can you do?

real you

• it's super fun and upbeat! it reminds me of something that would actually be on the yoy mini actually? that sort of energetic but subtly pissed off sound
• the electric guitar in the back is so bright and so fun
• i personally think the key is a bit high but it's not unmanageable like it is in f.i.l.a
• something about this song feels distinctly...american? i'm not sure how to explain it, but it seems like such an archetypical american summer fair song, the sort of song you would hear in the background while on a ferris wheel. at this point i think i need to clarify i have actually never been to an american summer fair LMAO

f.i.l.a (fall in love again)

• yes the rumours are true we can all tell this was written with levitating as an example point. ok. we know. move on
• i like this..because i actually don't like dua lipa's levitating and this is like levitating without every aspect i don't like about levitating LMFAO
• i was surprised how short the bridge is, but it actually works well when i listen to it as a whole. i think a longer bridge, while standard, would make it seem a little less twice lol
• personally i think the key is a bit too high here? or they should have had jihyo doing the high notes. nayeon excels better from her chest
• the way sana pronounces "fall in love again" with an emphasis on the "again" in the second chorus is so enchanting

last waltz

• this is so quintessential autumn haunting dance it's unreal, down to the glass shattering
• the song's structure is kind of interesting? it seems to use an anti-drop for the chorus, where the beat slows, then the glass shatters, then the beat speeds up faster. such a fascinating choice but works SO well
• the vocal processing has been done to further enhance this -- you can totally tell that a colder, cleaner tone was emphasized in both recordings and in processing
• special mention to tzuyu! her voice is so clean and clear and cool, like a glass window in the winter. she sounds incredible and her voice really adds to that sultry but cold feeling

espresso

• the synths and the lullaby backline!!!!
• the use of lower register on this song is PERFECT. it really adds a sultry, slick feel to the song. even more than that, since almost everyone is down low vocally it makes moments of members like sana (who has a naturally high, cutesy voice) singing EVEN better because that contrast so sharp
• really enjoying the stripped back prechorus: it amplifies the chorus so MUCH!
• even as i say this, 
• nayeon really stands out here! her voice takes on a husky, almost smoky feel in the bulk of her lines and she NAILED the high note in the bridge and went for it with her whole chest. just a stellar vocal performance from her

rewind

• oh rewind is so, so sweet. it's exactly what i expected from e.one (this is a good thing, to be clear)
• has such a dreamy, melancholic tune. it reminds me so much of mid 2010s kpop 2nd gen chillpop ballads. it's also a distinctly jype sound, i feel? like this is not a song i would hear from another company.
• a good half of twice have especially cooler and almost...metallic voices? think mina, chaeyoung when she sings, sana when her mixed voice actually pulls through and the bittersweet, slow feel of the song is reflected so much more in their voices. it creates a really gorgeous mood.

cactus

• omfg CACTUS. jihyo actually such a great job with the composition like this is honestly such a great introductory soft rock song to a discography like twice's that is so strongly colourpop and electropop, but somehow isn't actually pop rock? it's very distinctly rock. it's VERY impressive how she pulled this off. 
• jihyo's lyricism is incredible -- there's a level of sensitivity and hurt here that's insane when you consider that this is from the perspective of a dying cactus.
• the use of "i'll be fine" as a tagline is so genius because there's such a bittersweet feel to it -- you wish the circumstances were different, but it can't be helped
• JEONGTZU really nailed it like the feeling in their voices is sooooooooo good like tzuyu is singing for her LIFE about this fucking cactus

push & pull

• when listening to the snippet i was like yeah this is gonna be up no more's spiritual successor and i was RIGHT. the feeling is so perfect and their voices balance each other SO WELL omg i love it
• jihyo's rapping is so fun! she always performs incredibly well in songs that have a natural level of inflection and sass
• sana's sudden random "yeah, you're losing cool? hehe" was so cute and such a fun call-back to the way they used to have her sing-talking as an accent a few years back

hello

• where do i even begin with this one. all i can is that there's no way you can actually prepare yourself for this song
• i think the song is objectively actually fine but it's littered with HILARIOUS lyrics such as "NY MO CY WE TWICE" and "fanfare hands in the air, AYE!" getting repeated no less than twelve times at the end 
• i deeply respect them for trying out a genre they've never tried before -- the other two subunits' tracks were genres they've definitely done before, but hello is something new!
• oh, i will say this. nayeon's rapping is better than expected and she's definitely improved from her mc rail days LMFAO

1, 3, 2

• 1, 3, 2 is veeeery well-written in the sense that you can tell it was selected purely on the basis that it suits jeongmitzu's voices very well
• a highlight is jeongmi's sing-talking during the bridge! keeps it fresh from the rest of the song which is pure singing
• there's not much to say. it's very straightforward, down to the buildup. i will say i especially enjoyed how it strips back towards the end!

candy

• I LOVE CANDY!!!! i knew the moment they performed it on the anni live i loved it like i was listening to the anni live on my drive home from work and i was like smiling so buoyant the whole time it's so perfect
• the lyrics are terribly sweet and gentle and the girls all sound so beautiful. a slowpop song that is upbeat but relaxed in mood
• i have a theory that this is actually a fansong specifically for ifans -- mostly because of the lyrics being in english. the one thing that ruins this theory is that is that the domestic fanship is candy once whereas the overseas fanship is jelly once LOL. semantics, whatever,

the feels

• electric! pure perfect colour pop! it's just a perfect song -- it was when it dropped, and it still is. it represents TWICE very well.
• chaeyoung's rap "i can feel a real connection / a supernatural attraction, ah" is so addictive and SO memorable! i think it's one of the best english rap lines in any song by a kpop group, ever. jihyo's runs in the backgroudn during the second prechorus is SO energizing too and haunting -- she really shows her prowess as a singer on this!
• in general, truly the best english songs from a kpop group ever. lyrics are sonically cohesive and make sense, and more than that sound NATURAL to the beat. they worked very hard and it paid off

the feels (korean ver)

• chaeyoung did an EXCELLENT job adjusting the lyrics to korean for this version. special laurels for her work on adjusting nayeon's chorus and dahyun's prechorus -- it flows so PERFECTLY and sounds so incredibly natural
• i think there's something wrong with the processing on the song in general...? something definitely went wrong when they exported this song to the cds, because it sounds a little raw truthfully. the song itself is still good to be clear, but the singing sounds like it wasn't nailed down to the instrumental well enough. it's most obviously with jeongyeon's lines going into jihyo's lines because they DIDN'T re-record jeongyeon's lines at all, but they did jihyo's and you can tell there's something just a bit off there

scientist (r3hab remix)

• the remix actually works hilariously well because the original song is SO mild?! 

tldr

• just an incredibly well-made album! so much work went into this and they explored so many new genres
• i will say this: on initial listen, i thought it was startlingly disjointed. however, the album tracklist actually makes SO MUCH MORE SENSE when you split it up into a side A and a side B!
  • side A (1-8) is more upbeat and bright: scientist → moonlight → icon → cruel → real you → FILA → last waltz → espresso
  • side B (9-14) is all the subunit songs and all their mellow songs: rewind → cactus → push & pull → hello → 132 → candy
  • for obvious reasons, i'm not counting the feels or the scientist remix as being part of side B since it's obvious they were tacked onto the end because there's nowhere else they can possibly go on the album
• in a way, the album feels like it's a comprehensive reflection on their music, with the english songs pushing them forward. twice will always be twice, just expanding in new directions and taking on new musical horizons but they'll never lose sight of what makes their music wholly theirs