REVIEW: TWICE – I Can’t Stop Me & Eyes Wide Open

My favorite Twice album

As I mentioned in my last post, I said I’d talk about Twice’s recent comeback in a separate post. There are 13 songs on Eyes Wide Open and “I CAN’T STOP ME” could easily be its own separate post as well.

I figured I’d do a similar style album review like I did for Ateez TREASURE EP.FIN: ALL To Action album. Speaking of, I recently bought physical copies of Ateez TREASURE EP.FIN: ALL To Action and ZERO : FEVER Part.1.F Let me know if you’d be interested on a blog post showing these albums in full detail.

Anyway, back to Twice. It never feels like Twice are gone for long. I’m always excited for their comebacks and in my humble opinion, they keep getting better with every comeback. Let’s start with the first song and title track from Eyes Wide Open, “I CAN’T STOP ME”.

 Eyes Wide Open Track By Track

I CAN’T STOP ME

I think this current Twice sound started back with “Fancy” back in April 2019. At least that’s when I remember the obvious switch up in sound. “Fancy” is my current favorite Twice title track with “TT” and “Like OOH-AHH” falling in second and third place.

“I CAN’T STOP ME” it holds its own as a solid title track. It’s consistent with the current sound they’ve been experimenting with. I’ve been listening to it nonstop since release. It’s super catchy. It’s another up beat dance track from Twice which is just expected at this point.

I’m not sure why JYP continues to have the girls sing at such a high key and have such rigorous choreography to go with it. I’ve seen people complain about the high notes not being great in “I CAN’T STOP ME”.

I’m in agreement to some extent, but also Twice isn’t Mamamoo. People don’t stan Twice because they’re “vocal queens” like a Taeyeon, Solji, or Wendy.

They do what they can vocally with what JYP gives them. If you want flawless high notes and a vocally immaculate girl group, Twice ain’t it. They are excellent performers though.

Everyone has their specialty that brings in fans and contributes to their star power. The whole “Twice can’t sing” thing is so played out and clearly hasn’t stopped them from being so beloved by their home countries and international fans.

I think at this point in their career, Twice is focused on ONCE and continuing to make them happy. If you happen to enjoy the music as well, great, but they aren’t losing sleep over it.

I think they know they bring strong reactions from Kpop fans. You either stan or you don’t. I’m not saying casual Twice fans don’t exist, but I don’t think there’s a large group out there, lol.

I CAN’T STOP ME Fashion Review

Fashion wise, Twice also continues to be consistent with making me want everything they were, whether it’d look good on me or not.

There are six main looks in “I CAN’T STOP ME” music video. I want to focus on my main faves, though.

The yellow group look is my absolute favorite in the video. They’ve been wearing different color variations of this look and I love all of them.

I love the retro/60s inspired looks here mixed with modern trends like high waist shorts. I love Chaeyoung’s lime eyeshadow with this look as well.

Since we’re on the topic of hair and makeup, I love everyone’s styling here. I’m boring, so usually I find dark brown or black hair best on idols.

I love a good blonde, but most of the time it’s not toned, and it looks bad. Chaeyoung’s blonde with dark roots is my favorite hair on her. I love long hair on her so much.

Same with Jihyo. I perfer her long hair as well. I think the only other member I feel strongly about my favorite hair is Sana.

Her long dark brown hair is my favorite look. Although, her orange hair killed me this summer. Lastly, I’m happy Momo brought the bob back. I missed it.

The second group look I want to talk about briefly is the all denim look towards the end of the video. I love this look as well. It’s my third favorite of the bunch. It gives me Oh My Girl “Nonstop” vibes.

Last but not least is the gray outfits. These are my second favorite look in the video, favorite out of the teaser images. In the music video, they have a scene where they have them all at a table.

There’s the Twice members with tan dresses and across from them is Twice but in these black dresses. The black dresses were also shown in teaser pictures.

They’re alright, but not my favorite Twice group look or teaser. So I prefer the gray suits more. I absolutely hate the tan dresses, though. They do have some scenes where members like Jeongyeon, Chaeyoung, and Mina have their own individual outfits for their solo shots.

I believe they all had a look like this, but I didn’t want to go too in depth with those. So those are the other two group looks if you were curious to how I got six in total.

HELL IN HEAVEN

I feel like this could have fit on More & More because of the instrumental alone. The drums and flute (? Idk some wind instrument) give me a tropical vibe.

Plus there are animal sounds periodically throughout the song like birds chirping and crickets, so yeah all that feels like it would better suit the concept for More & More, but I don’t hate the placement on here.

I guess if I was there to make the decision, I’d have “SHADOW” on Eyes Wide Open and “HELL IN HEAVEN”  on More & More. Listening to “HELL IN HEAVEN” directly after “I CAN’T STOP ME” was surprising.

I wasn’t expecting that slight genre jump like that. I expected the sound from “I CAN’T STOP ME” to continue like in “UP NO MORE.” Both have a slower vibe, but “HELL IN HEAVEN” doesn’t really sound like a Twice song. It sounds more like something (G)-IDLE’s alley.

UP NO MORE

A midtempo song that has more of a retro dance vibe to it. I like the guitar and other background instrumentals in it. It reminds me of “Say So” by Doja Cat.

DO WHAT WE LIKE

Sounds similar to “UP NO MORE” but with more of a house/edm vibe to it. It would be a great song to sway to in the club.

I actually wish this was the first song because it’s a great introduction/presong to “I CAN’T STOP ME” then transition to “UP NO MORE”.

BRING IT BACK

“BRING IT BACK” has a slight trap sound to it when it comes to the instrumentals. I really like the drop right before the chorus. It’s a chill song.

BELIEVER

One of my favorite songs off Eyes Wide Open. My favorite Twice songs tend to be their slower, chill songs like this.

You could still dance and vibe to it, but you’d never hear it as a title track. I’m also a big fan of them delivering lines where the girls are at a lower pitch than what we normally hear Twice at.

So Dahyun’s part when she says, “I believe yeah” at the beginning sends me. Another example of this is in “Love Foolish” when Chaeyoung sings,”I love you, love you, hate, foolish.” They usually alternate members for these lines, but I love it every time.

QUEEN

Dahyun delivers AGAIN with her, “You’re a queen.” “Queen” picks the pace up a little.

There are horns in the chorus, and it fits well. I like the “va ra bba ba ba” part too. Twice does that a lot in their songs. I like it.

GO HARD

Relies heavily on the beat and drops for this one, but I still like it. It’s my least favorite song on Eyes Wide Open because it doesn’t do anything for me lyrically.

Pretty boring song, but if you have it on in the background while you work, it’s fine. Not a song I’m gonna hunt down to listen to.

SHOT CLOCK

I like Twice’s loud songs like “SHOT CLOCK”. It’s mostly farting horns, trumpets, and clapping. It’s a fun, upbeat song.

If it pops up on shuffle I’ll listen to it, but again not a song I’m gonna actively hunt for or listen to on repeat.

HANDLE IT

Another one of my faves. It’s probably their slowest song on the album. Not exactly a ballad, but not as fast as “QUEEN” or “DO WHAT WE LIKE”.

Twice again are at a lower pitch (or maybe it’s tune? Idk I’m still learning music jargon.). I’m sure their vocal cords appreciate the break.

DEPEND ON YOU

We’re almost at the end of the album, and you can tell. “Depend ON YOU” is another slower song where Twice sound really pretty to me.

There’s some guitar in the background. There’s a little house sound in the chorus. I love that change in flow.

Edit: Also Nayeon wrote the lyrics, and I’m just discovering this in September 2022?? WTF??!!?!?

SAY SOMETHING

My favorite instrumental on this whole damn album. I love when you get a longish period before the vocals start on a song.

You get some time to feel out the vibe of the song. “SAY SOMETHING” has a small hint of City Pop to it.

I think if I were to narrow it down, “SAY SOMETHING” is my favorite b-side on Eyes Wide Open. 

They just sound so good and mature. Like, this is grown folk music right here. Oh! And that saxophone at the end? Genius.

BEHIND THE MASK

We’ve finally reached the end. “BEHIND THE MASK” isn’t my favorite way to end the album, but it was stuck in my head after listening to it the first time.

And every time afterwards, so I guess it was a good choice. I think it’s more of I felt so satisfied after “SAY SOMETHING”, “BEHIND THE MASK” doesn’t live up or beat “SAY SOMETHING” for me. Really, either song could be last, and I think you still get a good ending.

Eyes Wide Open is my favorite Twice album to date because of the consistency you get throughout the album.

Most of the songs are midtempo and chill. Twice to me always gets slept on when it comes to b-sides.

This is the first album of theirs where I have more than like 4 or 5 b-sides I revisit. So if you haven’t listened to Eye Wide Open, I think it’s a great start to see what Twice can do. They’re so much more than cute title tracks like “Cheer Up”. Cheer Up still goes off, though, don’t misunderstand. 

I hope y’all enjoyed this longer review of “I CAN’T STOP ME” and Eye Wide Open. Let me know what your favorite songs from this album are below.

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Until next post,

Take care!

Ash♥♥♥