Before i start: good for you if you don’t agree, i’m glad you’re enjoying all these new songs and i do too!! 😄 These aren’t bad songs at all, just not what i used to enjoy in TWICE. so, i’ve been a once for years, and honestly it hurts to see the direction they’ve taken after Between 1&2, which i absolutely loved. i know a lot of people describe these eras as more “mature” or “refined,” but to me, that’s when things started shifting, and not in a good way. every comeback since then (excluding solo work) feels like they’re moving further and further away from what made them so strong and unique in the first place what bothers me the most is how the bsides all sound like they belong to the same project. same production style, same vibe, no risks, no distinct personality. the days where each track had its own identity and still felt cohesive are gone. i’m thinking about tracks like Get Loud, Hot, Look At Me, Love Foolish, Up No More, Basics and so many other great bsides. even if you didn’t love every song, you could feel effort, diversity, and sometimes even bold choices. now everything feels too clean, too smooth, too predictable. it all blurs together and becomes forgettable and now we have THIS IS FOR. this album genuinely broke me a little. releasing this as their next full album after Formula of Love feels like a major step down. FOL had purpose, variety, and clear artistic direction. every track had something to say, while still fitting into a cohesive story. THIS IS FOR sounds like it was designed to appeal to a specific market, rather than express who they are as artists. it sounds like an attempt to replicate what’s trending in the US, or on tiktok in general. and by doing that, they lost what made them stand out. the bsides are weak. the title track is flat. the songs are short, with no bridges, no outros, no musical moments. i’m thinking of FILA, which had a disco instrumental break, or Cruel. Or even THE iconiiicc dance break in Likey. here we have nothing. not a single song is in korean (i think..?), and sorry but THAT MATTERS!!!. they are a korean group, and not including even one korean track, and especially involving very few korean producers and lyricists, is a huge red flag. it shows even more how hard they’re trying to target the US market at the expense of everything else. give these people work!! it’s THEIR industry, THEIR time to shine as KOREAN producers. Why do we give all the work to random men from LA?? like cmon i’m not saying they should never change. quite the opposite. i’m not asking for another Likey or Signal just for nostalgia’s sake. but i want to see them evolve in a direction that stays true to themselves, not turn into a generic pop group with no identity. this isn’t growth, this is dilution. they’re erasing everything that made them special just to reach a wider audience, that probably will not even stick around maybe i’m too nostalgic. maybe i care too much. but i miss their old title tracks. they were fun, LONG, impactful, full of presence. even the bsides used to surprise me. the last real TT that made me realize how amazing they are was Talk That Talk which was years ago. i don’t want them stuck in the past, but what they’re doing now doesn’t speak to me at all. and im sure im not the only one. it’s a cold, empty kind of evolution that i just can’t connect to i’ll listen to THIS IS FOR again, because i really do want to like it and appreciate it as a full project. but right now, i’m just disappointed. and yeah, i’m seriously considering unstan. not out of hate or anything like that, i genuinely adore the girls. but i don’t recognize the group anymore, and that’s hard to admit, because i truly believed in them. i love them as people, but at the end of the day, what matters most to me is the music. submitted by /u/aesponyma [link] [comments]
