Song Review: Twice's "Signal" Fails to Connect

Twice generally delivers a bop of some kind or another. They're all strong hooks with upbeat tempos and even if the songs aren't necessarily fantastic, they're at least redeemable in some ways. Like "Cheer Up" made up for it's strange take on tempo by having one of the best hooks in the past few years, and "TT" made up for being "TT" by having easily the best choreos Twice has had thus far.

"Signal" has, well, none of these.

"Signal" lacks the punch that I have come to expect from a Twice song. While it follows the general pattern that hook songs tend to follow, this song just falls so exceptionally flat that I can't believe this is a full release. There's basically nothing to go on here. 

"Signal" relies a lot on the quasi-rap that a lot of idol groups use, but it's not done well. While Chaeyoung and Dahyun are the best suited to this kind of thing, I found them underused while Momo and, hilariously, Mina get most of the interesting rap parts. Neither Momo or Mina are well-suited to doing this to their voices and it's incredibly jarring, to say the least. 

Actually this part distribution makes me wonder if JYP Ent. really knows what to do with Mina. It's like they've figured out that she's not suited to be a vocal, variety, or even a dancer in the group so they've thrown her into rap. IMHO she should stick to being a sub-vocal, like she was on "Like Ooh-Aah".

Also interesting is the fact that Jungyeon is especially underused in this track. It's not like she's ever been a prominent figure in Twice musically, but this is ridiculous. The hook would have sounded a lot better if Jungyeon sang Tzuyu's part. 

Additionally, this song is very flat. Twice have relied on Jihyo's more rounded vocals to make their tracks more interesting, as well as Nayeon's stability, but they're noticeably absent. I don't know if JYP was going far a purposely softer sound, but it just doesn't work for this track. 

Honestly, I'm just thrilled that it all stayed relatively the same tempo. 

The MV also wasn't anything interesting. The members get lame superpowers - and honestly if you're going to do that at least to do it to the corny insanity SM did with EXO - and it's filmed in what I'm pretty sure is just a recreation of the classroom from Got7's "Stop Stop It". 

As well, there's not much to see of the choreography, which is generally the saving point for their comebacks, but what I do see looks uninspired. 

All in all, this is Twice's worst song to date and further proof that they're not close to having a song as good as "Like Ooh-Ahh" again.