Review Summary: SPLASH?
Have TWICE ever been this steamy? Goodness knows it's not something I've been keeping track of throughout their eight-album, thirteen-EP oeuvre, which surely runs deep enough to furnish a devil's advocate response against any given take*. Perhaps their Korean output has always been drenched in innuendo and I've simply never noticed (though given the wholesome wavelength that runs through their group chemistry and what I've observed of their fanbase, I highly doubt this). The TWICE I know and run the earliest phase of my mornings on is clean, peppy and universally accessible — so why is "Dive" among the thirstiest pop tracks I've heard from anyone this year? Why does the
notice me routine played out on "Echoes of Heart" come with such a charged sense of intimacy? Why does this album's brand of giddiness feel a little more than innocent headrush?
Well,
because that's just the mood of the day and, as with (almost) all things, TWICE make breezy, palatable work of it. These nine girls and their small army of JYP-bankrolled producers have proved a dozen times over that there is no pop trend that they cannot make their own, so perhaps it was just a matter of time until we found ourselves invited to turn the lights down and our pulse rates up. We're in safe hands — maintaining a unified sultry address across nine-part vocal division is no easy feat, but the performances here see it through with surprising cohesion. Queens of the swoon Mina and Sana have a field day here, while in one of the best surprises for committed fans, lead rapper Dahyun finds her silky (sung) vocals on level footing with the vocalists typically afforded far more (singing) prominence than her — if anything she still feels a tad underutilised (perhaps because
Dive is comparatively light on its rap). Within the group's established vocal dynamics, the one reservation I'd hold is that main vocalist Jihyo's commanding tones struggle to make the same headway as on TWICE's classic dance-pop fare, but she still has ample opportunity to belt on the likes of "Ocean Deep" and "Dance Again", the most business-as-usual track here.
The album may lean heavily in favour of the group's most R&B-friendly contingent, but its palette is more composite than this may suggest: this thing's all-important moving-touching haptic current comes courtesy of a sensuous reggaeton pulse that runs through practically the whole record, though this is traded for driving new jack swing on "Inside of Me" and flushed through to a Latin house banger on the earworm closer "Hare Hare". As usual the group's versatility does them well here: the only point that reaches beyond their wheelhouse comes on "Here I Am", which plays one of the album's most elegant choruses against a full-tilt (and mercifully brief) throwback to the obnoxiousness and swagger that 2010s K-Pop built its name on.
Thrills and spills, one supposes. Still, the familiar charms here run deeper than novelty: for all
Dive initially scans as a departure from the self-and-sisterhood affirmation bangers we heard on their standout EP
With YOU-th earlier this year (and earlier still on 2019's
Feel Special EP), or from the playful twists on PG romance on their landmark 2021 full-length
Formula of Love, there are echoes aplenty of both throughout the album. One hears the former in "Here I Am"'s introspective focus and opener "Beyond the Horizon"'s ode to flying on one's own wings, the latter on album highlight "Peach Soda"'s enjoyably featherweight romantic analogy (sweet-tasting, short-lasting – alas). TWICE remain shrewd in catering to multiple wings of their fanbase over a single release, hence their choice of languages:
Dive is putatively sung in Japanese and angled towards the Japanese market, but in keeping with the trend in their Korean output, the group are only too happy to make concessions to their growing international audience — and so, what feels like half of every song, often half of every
line, is English (conveniently, a long-established feature of J-Pop vogue). Each 'half' tells more or less the whole story, but anyone with a working basic knowledge of both languages will take their thrills at a premium — the title-track in particular plays up two tongues' worth of double entendre to eyebrow-raising effect (
daitan ni DIVE INTO ME [...] motto fukaku e — yeesh).
Dive does well to keep its appeal broad and its address bold, but I still find it highlight-shy by TWICE's usual standards: "Peach Soda", "Hare Hare", "Echoes of Heart" and the title-track may mark convincing standouts relative to this tracklist, but the individual impact of any of these has yet to find its way under my skin in the way of their very best material (especially vis-*-vis how deeply
With YOU-th's choicest cuts have resonated through the months since it dropped). Still, this of all failings is survivable: TWICE have long since made their name as one of the most dependable pop acts from any country by upholding an ironcast baseline of quality and letting the consistency and versatility of their output gradually stack up to a statement more towering than any feint at an artistic gamechanger would likely yield — and for the sighs, heartaches and flirtations with reggaeton that mark its place in their canon,
Dive ultimately proves to be no exception here.
