Whilst the cover at the top of this review is the digital only cover in comparison to it's colourful flower adorned physical cover, it actually says quite a lot about Eyes Wide Open.
Eyes Wide Open isn't as bold, as loud or as colourful as what Twice has given prior. It doesn't have the sickly sweet, cutesy girl charms of their debut Twicetagram. And it isn't the relentless pop assault that either of Japanese albums BDZ and &Twice were. It's a far more subdued affair on the whole. The tail end of Twicetagram when songs started to wind down and strip back? That's the whole of Eyes Wide Open. Because of this, the album is going to be an acquired taste for long-term fans of the group who like their Twice EP's and LP's loud from start to finish, and those coming in new expecting every song to be as bombastic as the songs highlighted in much of K-Pop's US coverage.
Twice haven't been around for that long, but already have a couple of Korean and Japanese albums out and a whole bunch of EP's. This feels like something which was consciously considered for Eyes Wide Open. K-Pop as a whole has become better in its approach to albums; crafting bodies of work, as opposed to putting everything into the title / lead track and then littering 10 tracks with whatever-the-fuck. JYP honestly could have just had Twice put out an album which feels like a dump of everything they'd already put out. But we instead got an album which sought to cement some form of musical identity for Twice, as well as creating a summarisation for the group to date.
Tropical house is a sound that Twice have done since the beginning and it's the anchoring sound of Eyes Wide Open. But it's a far more lax take on the sound than you'd expect for the group, or any K-Pop act for that matter. With the exception of "Do What We Like", all of the other instances of this sound are a lot more stripped back. And even "Do What We Like" sees the dial turned down from the tropical house cuts we got on More & More and Summer Nights.
The thing that's really surprising about this album is how chilled the entire thing is. Given Twice's history of title tracks and all they've released to date, you'd expect every song to bang out of the gate, but there are so few moments on the album which do. In fact, there's only one, "Shot Clock", which is the worst song on the album and feels completely out of place. It sounds like a song intended for an SM Entertainment act. Which may not be far off from the reality, given that it is co-written and produced by Moonshine, who have been racking up a whole bunch of production credits over at SM over the past year and a half.
Eyes Wide Open is not trying to be experimental, re-invent the wheel or prove much of anything. There are no audacious songs, and nothing out of the ordinary with this album. On one hand its commendable. Especially for a group who has often released songs that feel like they're doing just a little too much. But there is also a sense of Twice not fully owning the sounds they do. Twice have done tropical house flavoured songs since pretty much the beginning, but I wouldn't say that it's a sound that they own to such a point where they do it best. And with other sounds on Eyes Wide Open it's the same deal. "Up No More" and "Say Something" are city pop cuts, and they sound really nice, but Twice don't own the songs in the same way that Yubin did "Lady" or Yukika did HER WHOLE ENTIRE ALBUM. Then you have the 80s synth pop cuts "I Can't Stop Me" and "Behind The Mask", which are again, really good sounding songs, but nothing other girl groups haven't done far better. This is where Twice as an act fall short for me and where this album falters. Everything sounds nice enough, but Twice aren't owning a lot of these songs and really making a statement. They also aren't leaving much of a musical legacy, when so many of their songs sound so similar, and so little of Eyes Wide Open feels innately catchy and stick with me long after I've heard it.
Twice aren't a group known for giving you serious vocals, which is fine. But I do wish there was better vocal production on each of these songs, especially on an album where the music itself is pretty sparse. There is a lot of space on songs and chances for Twice to given us some great harmonies and vocal moments. It's a shame it went unexplored, and that greater advantage wasn't taken of the fact that the group has so many members. But K-Pop lives for line distribution over a collective vocal, so...I guess that's that.
Eyes Wide Open is a pleasant enough album. It somewhat subverts your expectations based on what you've heard Twice do before, giving you a far more relaxed album than you may have expected. But it also doesn't give you enough. Twice don't truly own any of the songs, and the tropical house sound was already wearing thin, because every instance of it sounds too similar, and producers aren't striving to do anything unique with the sound to the point where it feels interesting or exclusive to Twice. And now there's NiziU, another JYP girl group releasing music in Japan with the exact same sound.
Eyes Wide Open is nothing special or remarkable. But it is consistent, and feels like as much of a low key celebration of what Twice has done to date, as it does a line drawn under it all; enabling them to go onto something new and a new phase of Twice.
Highlights:
■ I Can't Stop Me
■ Hell in Heaven
■ Up No More
■ Do What We Like
■ Handle It 🏆 J's fave
Twice haven't been around for that long, but already have a couple of Korean and Japanese albums out and a whole bunch of EP's. This feels like something which was consciously considered for Eyes Wide Open. K-Pop as a whole has become better in its approach to albums; crafting bodies of work, as opposed to putting everything into the title / lead track and then littering 10 tracks with whatever-the-fuck. JYP honestly could have just had Twice put out an album which feels like a dump of everything they'd already put out. But we instead got an album which sought to cement some form of musical identity for Twice, as well as creating a summarisation for the group to date.
Tropical house is a sound that Twice have done since the beginning and it's the anchoring sound of Eyes Wide Open. But it's a far more lax take on the sound than you'd expect for the group, or any K-Pop act for that matter. With the exception of "Do What We Like", all of the other instances of this sound are a lot more stripped back. And even "Do What We Like" sees the dial turned down from the tropical house cuts we got on More & More and Summer Nights.The thing that's really surprising about this album is how chilled the entire thing is. Given Twice's history of title tracks and all they've released to date, you'd expect every song to bang out of the gate, but there are so few moments on the album which do. In fact, there's only one, "Shot Clock", which is the worst song on the album and feels completely out of place. It sounds like a song intended for an SM Entertainment act. Which may not be far off from the reality, given that it is co-written and produced by Moonshine, who have been racking up a whole bunch of production credits over at SM over the past year and a half.
Eyes Wide Open is not trying to be experimental, re-invent the wheel or prove much of anything. There are no audacious songs, and nothing out of the ordinary with this album. On one hand its commendable. Especially for a group who has often released songs that feel like they're doing just a little too much. But there is also a sense of Twice not fully owning the sounds they do. Twice have done tropical house flavoured songs since pretty much the beginning, but I wouldn't say that it's a sound that they own to such a point where they do it best. And with other sounds on Eyes Wide Open it's the same deal. "Up No More" and "Say Something" are city pop cuts, and they sound really nice, but Twice don't own the songs in the same way that Yubin did "Lady" or Yukika did HER WHOLE ENTIRE ALBUM. Then you have the 80s synth pop cuts "I Can't Stop Me" and "Behind The Mask", which are again, really good sounding songs, but nothing other girl groups haven't done far better. This is where Twice as an act fall short for me and where this album falters. Everything sounds nice enough, but Twice aren't owning a lot of these songs and really making a statement. They also aren't leaving much of a musical legacy, when so many of their songs sound so similar, and so little of Eyes Wide Open feels innately catchy and stick with me long after I've heard it.
Twice aren't a group known for giving you serious vocals, which is fine. But I do wish there was better vocal production on each of these songs, especially on an album where the music itself is pretty sparse. There is a lot of space on songs and chances for Twice to given us some great harmonies and vocal moments. It's a shame it went unexplored, and that greater advantage wasn't taken of the fact that the group has so many members. But K-Pop lives for line distribution over a collective vocal, so...I guess that's that.
Eyes Wide Open is a pleasant enough album. It somewhat subverts your expectations based on what you've heard Twice do before, giving you a far more relaxed album than you may have expected. But it also doesn't give you enough. Twice don't truly own any of the songs, and the tropical house sound was already wearing thin, because every instance of it sounds too similar, and producers aren't striving to do anything unique with the sound to the point where it feels interesting or exclusive to Twice. And now there's NiziU, another JYP girl group releasing music in Japan with the exact same sound.Eyes Wide Open is nothing special or remarkable. But it is consistent, and feels like as much of a low key celebration of what Twice has done to date, as it does a line drawn under it all; enabling them to go onto something new and a new phase of Twice.
Highlights:
■ I Can't Stop Me
■ Hell in Heaven
■ Up No More
■ Do What We Like
■ Handle It 🏆 J's fave
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