In lieu of the obvious subhead joke, please accept this photo instead…
[Video]
[6.75]
Leonel Manzanares de la Rosa: Twice are finally in the middle of their imperial phase. Anything they release at this point will become huge. And while this tune is not as instantaneously iconic as “Cheer Up” or “Likey”, and definitely not as captivatingly weird as “Signal”, it sure reinforces the strengths that are now synonymous with Twice — catchy, stomping pop rhythms, strong call-and-response hooks, a certain shouty sass. The problem is the somewhat flat structure; it feels like producer JYP is playing it a bit too safe, even for the sake of taking a “classic” approach. Twice work much better when there’s a lot more going on.
[6]
Ryo Miyauchi: The pronounced synth bounce reminiscent of “Heart Shaker” or a more contained “Like Ooh-Aah” (that movie-referencing video, especially) aligns “What Is Love?” musically closer to Twice’s Korean singles, but their naive perspective suits the group’s Japanese records. And it’s fascinating to hear them sing like a different unit, whose innocence has yet to be tainted by anxiety or mania that comes from being so deep into an obsessive love. Though, that impatience to experience that unknown feeling for themselves turns into a manic rush in itself.
[8]
Alfred Soto: Hooks galore tethered to a momentum that won’t quit, “What is Love” answers the question and keeps its savoir-faire too.
[8]
Alex Clifton: I had a weird blog when I was in high school; I still have the archive and will read through it sometimes, just to remind myself of the person I once was. I was obsessed with crushes and romance, finding someone new and beautiful to fall for whenever I could, writing poems about boys’ noses or how a crooked smile made me feel like I’d fall over in the middle of class. It was never a casual interest, and I’ve never been a casual person: it was truly a single-minded pursuit of figuring out what, exactly, love is. I’m half a life away from when I made that blog, and I’ve had more experience now. I know that whatever I felt back then was never actually love–I didn’t know those people, I never would–but I didn’t actually care about ending up with them. Instead I chased the feeling of “love” itself, of saccharine sweetness mixed with fear and anticipation and a weird, unyielding sadness about how it could all die tomorrow. Somehow Twice manages to hit on that exact set of feelings here, with a sunny melody and twinkly backing but with a final chorus dropout that put a lump in my throat.
[9]
Katherine St Asaph: Remarkably like a 2007-era off-Disney TV theme: power-pop boiled down to sugar, with Shut Up Stella and “Irreplaceable” melodies in the water. Except those themes didn’t always sound this chintzy.
[5]
Stephen Eisermann: This feels too Disney and juvenile to be taken entirely seriously. I’m always impressed by just how committed Twice sounds in their singles. I can’t think of any American artists who could sell this song (or the much better “Likey”) with the conviction that the girls of Twice have. But I also can’t think of any that would want a song like this.
[3]
Will Adams: Twice’s boundless energy will never not be winsome, but “What Is Love?” feels almost perfunctory, in the way the similarly fast-paced “Knock Knock” did. Contrast to “Likey,” which sounded like a roller coaster from start to finish; this is more like a ferris wheel, pleasant with zero acceleration.
[6]
Micha Cavaseno: “What Is Love?” feels drastic for Twice because of its emptiness despite the sugary sweetness. Whereas other songs have the singers fixating on others, or others fixating on them, now there is no caller but a void where they know a caller should be. Twice’s pattern of never commiting to one sonic or image-based concept, instead pivoting between extreme reactions to perceived failings of each successive single, has produced a song that feels like a point of finality. And unlike on “Signal,” JYP has finally taken the time to study his label’s act and master their highlights with Black Eyed Pilseung in a easy composite: the light “Knock Knock”-reminiscent electro throb pulsing beneath the song, starting underneath each verse, the end melody of the chorus faintly echoing “Cheer Up,” the trap-drum build of the pre-chorus throwing back to “TT,” the shift from a simple half-step drum on the first verse, to a dissonant Oris Jay-styled breakstep beat embedded deep in the mix beneath the second verse. Twice become streamlined into something still so frantically desperate, but without the seemingly wistful energy of JYP’s aforementioned first attempt. The descending “Know, know, know, know” into the phantomic plead/demand/wonder of “WHAT IS LOVE” reveals the frightening reality behind the girls’ regurgitation of ideas of romance and affection that are so unrealistically sweet. This love, which they and us back home are bombarded with, always seems to elude our actual grasp. And it’s impossible to know if this love will do all the things we’ve been told it can do, or be all it’s hyped up to be. All we can do is pursue this dream we’re promised, treasuring its briefest of moments in our lives.
[9]