TWICE - Eyes wide open
Oct 26, 2020
46
aight alcohol's worn off i think here's my review

Seven
nah im joking LMFAO

TWICE x Capitalism

Twice's long-awaited second full album, Eyes Wide Open, is possibly their most bipolar release yet -- where its bouts of mania is at times the group's peak (such examples being the great A-side "I Can't Stop Me"), but is followed by the inevitable episode of depression. Unfortunately, such episodes mark Twice's lowest career point yet - where they seem to think making Chainsmokers-esque generic pop music (i.e. "Do What We Like") is exactly what the fans wanted... despite being the complete polar opposite of what we wanted to hear from Twice.

Perhpas it's to be expected after such a sudden surge in quality and the resulting popularity that we all witnessed with Twice in 2019, where they released three incredible projects back to back to back. Since then, they've signed with Republic Records in a partnership deal with JYP Entertainment to further increase Twice's popularity in the western hemisphere where other idol groups such as Blackpink or BTS make millions of dollars (or billions of won) in revenue annually... probably in an attempt to make more money (who would've guessed).

Unfortunately, it's obvious that sacrifices needed to be made - and the biggest sacrifice of them all is losing the coherence and cohesiveness in projects that made Twice so popular in the Hallyu Wave in the first place. Eyes Wide Open is by far their most mind-boggling record in that it can't make its mind up on what sound it wants to go for. Disco? Okay sure, wait why the fuck are you suddenly going electronica? What, now you're doing citypop? What the fuck is going on in this album? It's frustrating because Twice's first album Twicetagram, which in my humble opinion is unfairly hated on and is a staple in recent KPop albums, doesn't have this problem at all: it's concise and consistent throughout, even if their original aegyo aesthetic is a product of its time.

But Eyes Wide Open's insistence on throwing consistency out of the window and trying to cover all bases with the mindset of "a little bit of everything for everyone" absolutely is this record's downfall. Where its thumping throwback intro and A-side track of "I Can't Stop Me" is followed by a COMPLETELY different rejected Camila Cabello sounding-ass track in possibly one of the worst song transitions I've heard in any KPop record all year, and only increases my frustration more because individually they are NOT bad tracks whatsoever! But in a 13-track (which is insanely long for KPop considering Blackpink just dropped a sub 30-minute 8 track EP that they insist is an album) long album, where it makes a welcome dip into disco but then suddenly takes your foot out and throws you in front of an incoming train before you can even finish its chorus, could we PLEASE at least just enjoy the change in sound direction before you show us a white-washed filler track?

God forbid what this album could've sounded like if they weren't trying to increase their Western appeal; we might actually have gotten their next Feel Special. But as is the root of practically evil in the world, money talks - especially in such a turbulent economy given the current circumstances worldwide. Twice's discography is now unfortunately plagued by an underlying capitalist thirst by two major record labels in their respective territories, and is definitely one of the biggest shames I've witnessed as of late (the other being Irene fucking up and pushing SM's new girl group ahead of time).

Anyway, not sure If i made it clear but there's a lot of filler tracks as well as a completely incoherent tracklisting - as I usually do with albums I was looking forward to but feature this issue, here's my own tracklisting (make sure you listen with shuffle off!): https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4WbIpUt9syWIKvBA4ZtPrJ?si=gRyzqj3vS7aR9kiOyQgVyw

shoutout @Xkey

6 Comments
3y
good review sir but ayo not the irene slander 😫
3y
IRENE IS A 30-YEAR-OLD WOMAN
3y
LMAO
3y
Ouch the irene line, too soon
3y
i thought you were going to keep it at just 'seven' Seeing that for the first time had me doing double takes
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