After having one of the most successful years I have ever seen, TWICE have returned with a new ep and title track titled TT. Based off the crying emoji T_T, the song tales a girl who wants more of a relationship that is obviously not coming.
As I write this (at 2:01 pm EST), I find myself still puzzled where I stand with this song. I like parts of it, dislike some and then not knowing exactly what to think about others.
At 6:05 PM EST, I think I have come to a conclusion.
All three of TWICE’s promotional efforts have been led with a Black Eyed Pil Sung track, who is more or less becoming some new super producer (think Brave Bros, Shinsandong Tiger, Double Sidekick). While BEP S has songs that I thoroughly enjoy, their TWICE efforts have been a severely mixed bag.
Like Ooh Ahh and Cheer Up suffer from this idea of “COLOR POP” as whatever PR person titled it. In this, both songs tend to take on several different genres to give their pop a little more…pop. Unfortunately trying to combine like seven different genres together can lead to a lack of cohesion that is not unfamiliar to K Pop (the year of 2013 was indeed a memorable one). With Like Ooh Ahh the song felt more secure but as many commented hanging on a thread of order and chaos. With Cheer Up any pretense went out the window. Parts of the song sounded like generic pop (the chorus and first verse) only to taken over by Reggeaton inspired sounds, and softer k pop melodies. It was a song of confusion and mess…a memorable mess.
With TT we finally see the group in some sort of unison. The song does try to add musically, but instead it is in an attempt to build the song up (the song gets more intense, albeit subtly). By the time the song gets to the second verse (headed by Jungyeon) the song finds its charm, making it feel all worth it. Unfortunately said charm seems to waver on the one part where it needs to exist the most…the chorus.
The chorus falls behind its predecessors. While Cheer Up was a bit of an overly bright mess, the song had one of the most memorable chorus’ of the year. TT isn’t by any means bad, and is catchy in it’s own way. But the song kind of simmers at the point of the chorus. The part worth remembering starts at I’m like TT. While Nayeon and Jihyo do serve some point here, it is ultimately Dahyun that was blessed with the saving grace of the chorus (with Jihyo finishing it off).
Other than this, small issues I found were Mina’s first part after Nayeon’s, simply because the section felt like it lost some steam and the change in melody. Also Sana and MoMo seem stuck. The pre-chorus’ feel shorter than Cheer Up and LOA, and not just in length. They feel like a blip that does move into the chorus, but at the same time not really. In the second verse they make more sense, but that is it.
The music video is nothing we haven’t seen from Twice before. It seems to be their signature now to just dress the girls up and make sure they get enough screentime to make it viable. They’re a big group and often times big groups can get members lost in the sauce. With TWICE, they have found a way to highlight each girl and give them “personality”. It works, but likely won’t translate well.
TT has it’s positives and negatives. It is their most “cohesive” track to date, finding itself building to what should have been a catchy dace pop moment. Instead it can’t really grasp on to a great punch of a chorus. That on top of some minor choices made throughout the track doesn’t completely sell the track for me. However they provide a killer middle section that shows what the song could have been if they did just a little more.
Eh…well.
Huzzy Pop 