TWICE
With YOU-th
Release: February 23, 2024
Article by Elena Vasilico
TWICE are known for their excessively sweet songs likeTT and dance tracks like FANCY. However, with With YOU-th the nine women are taking a new direction. The mini-album contains a variety of subdued synthpop beats and unusually few rap parts.
Photo courtesy of JYP Entertainment
The pre-released track I GOT YOU already shows that TWICE is moving in a calmer direction. Synthesizers and new wave beats meet right from the start. The track was written and produced by Why Don't We members Jonah Marais and Daniel Seavey, among others. The lyrics are meant to portray the friendship and love among the nine members. How is that possible if they didn't write the lyrics themselves? That's for each person to decide.
Three of them were allowed to express themselves lyrically in the songs. Chaeyoung co-wrote the lyrics for RUSH, Jeongyeon for BLOOM, and Dahyun for YOU GET ME. The production of the three songs is top-level, but unfortunately, they don't stand out with their electropop beats when listening through the album.
The title track of the album, ONE SPARK, is perhaps the song with the most stereotypical K-pop girl group vibes. TWICE manages to create another dance hit with a mix of indie-pop and electro. This could also be because they worked with producer earattack again for the song, who has already written several big hits for them. The lyric "Yeah, my heart is burning burning burning" easily sticks in your head and doesn't go away quickly.
With YOU-th seems to be TWICE's attempt to adapt to the hype around NewJeans while still incorporating their own features. If that was the group's intention, they succeeded somewhat moderately. Nevertheless, it should be noted that the album, with its subdued beats and absence of any EDM influences, differs from most fourth-generation K-pop releases. Overall it's a great mini-album with room left for more in the future.
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