[Review] TWICE - Like Ooh-Ahh (Revisited)

In honor of Twice's fourth anniversary, let's take a look at "Like Ooh-Ahh" and how the Kpop world was introduced to their newest girl group overlord and my reaction to their first song. Also holy cow it's been four years already since this debut. Help me I'm old.

• Before this debut though, my honest opinion is that Twice doesn't have to try very hard. Miss A has yet to establish themselves as a top tier girl group, plus the general inactivity has left a gaping hole in JYP's girl group roster. Anything from a decent to average song will suffice.

Imagine telling 2015 fans that Twice would not only be the best girl group ever seen out of JYPE, but one of the top girl groups of all time in three to four years. Not to mention that both Wonder Girls and miss A would be out of order shortly after this debut. "Like Ooh-Ahh" matches up favorably to "Irony" and "Bad Girl Good Girl" and serves as one of JYP's best debuts to date.

• Alright, I seriously tried to like this song. I really did. "Like Ooh-Ahh" is an energetic dance number that fails to captivate outside of the chorus. To begin with, the verses are very jarring. Each member's parts are very short and while a group of this size is technically something new with JYP groups (the previously largest rosters were the original 2PM and GOT7 with 7 members, and girl groups maxed out at 5), we've seen groups like Super Junior, 9MUSES, and EXO manage lines carefully. I'm more concerned with the constant switching between the clear singing and bursts of rap.

To this day I still find the verses to be awkward bouncing between the members, but it's not as bad as I originally made it seem. This is due to hindsight bias and the subsequent comebacks that raised my opinion of "Like Ooh-Ahh." Going to each member after a few seconds still isn't great but I have seen worse both from Twice and other groups in the time since.

• The only "rap" is the "like ooh-ahh" at 1:07 which is perfectly fine given it's the title. In terms of the "actual" rap following the chorus, Dahyun and Chaeyoung seem like the weakest female rappers in JYP but admittedly they had to share a 12 second rap, and even this rap had to cut back and forth every 3 seconds.

I have no idea what that first sentence means...I must have been on some drugs while writing that. Speaking of drugs, how I didn't immediately label Chaeyoung and Dahyun as the definitive worst of JYP's girl group rappers is beyond me. Their seniors were Yubin and Jia, both consistently great rappers within their groups. Even if I counted the mediocre Hyelim (or even Min), I'd take those former two over the Twice duo. Twice have proven to be strong in many aspects, but their rapping is still one that eludes them to this day.

• As for the MV, I'm not sure what to think here, either. I understand Halloween is coming up soon, but what purpose did the multitude of zombies serve? This is like 4minute's "What's Your Name" MV all over again, the zombies are used as props and nothing more. There's no substantial plot, the lyrics are a bit of a mismatch, and the girls don't seem the least bit frightened by the horde. By the end of the video we're treated to at least something. Cute girls can cure the zombie infection, so we just need to turn everyone into fanboys and fangirls of Kpop to stave off the zombie apocalypse. 

Useless zombies are still useless, but hey now that almost everyone and their mom is a Twice fan, we don't have to worry too much about a potential zombie apocalypse anymore! Also shoutouts to when I still tried to care about writing stuff on music videos, good times. Nowadays I have gotten so lazy that I equal these video directors.

• Twice have some pretty vocals, so JYP (or whoever) should really work with that better. Give Chaeyoung and Dahyun (and nobody else) some actual rap segments to show their abilities and voila! Oh and I realize I failed to mention the dance at all, but I'm already wrapping this up and I've got a Hearthstone ladder to climb. Next time, Twice.

This might have been my most spot-on conclusion in a while. The voices on Twice blend very well together and we have heard the magic that Jihyo, Nayeon, and Jungyeon have weaved over the last four years. Chaeng and Dubu have never been inspiring as rappers but they've passed their tests with decent results. The funniest part is that "next time" was the "Cheer Up" release which was their best overall track all the way until "Feel Special" so kudos to them.