The Singles Jukebox

Pop, to two decimal places.

Girls’ Generation TTS – Twinkle

Three of nine.


[Video][Website]
[5.57]

Iain Mew: My friend recently went to South Korea and brought me back a version of Girls’ Generation’s Mr. Taxi album which came in an outsize case with big double-sided photo cards for each member of the group. It still hasn’t helped make me care enough about individual members for this vocal showcase barely masquerading as a song to do much for me.
[5]

Anthony Easton: This is really robotic, amusingly so, and doesn’t even twinkle as much as the lyrics suggest it should, which makes sense. One of the things that I love unironically about K-pop is its acknowledgement of the artifice inherint in making pop, and the building up of artifice to include personae, video, fashion, and even fandom. That the fandom is part of the game being played seems more accurate than the American obsession with narratives of verisimilitude. Which means that I am really looking forward to the next flavour of Girls’ Generation, as promised by the Wikipedia page: “by changing the members of the unit according to the music and concept of each new subunit album.”
[8]

Kat Stevens: On the Sitcom Theme Tune Ranking Scale (similar to the UK Boyband Ranking Scale but with sitcom theme tunes instead of boybands) this rates higher than Blossom but lower than Terry and June.
[4]

Brad Shoup: The subgroup goes full En Vogue. That classic K-pop synth stutter is the anchor for me, but not a strong one. Tiffany’s contributions are the high and low points: she goes from unfortunate Aguilera-isms to the steadiest soul on the pre-chorus. The weirdest part is the mid-chorus breakdown… what, we care that a band’s involved?
[6]

Katherine St Asaph: I’m not the only one who pines for Back to Basics! If only this had less “Candyman” and more “Ain’t No Other Man.”
[7]

Alfred Soto: Reminiscent of one of Christina Aguilera’s attempts at “period” songs only with restrained vocals leading the charge.
[5]

Ramzi Awn: The Nocera synth line doesn’t really work, but the soda-pop bridge and keys are a welcome relief to the verses’ mechanics, almost making up for their lack of resonance.  An all-fronts mix can go a long way, and K-pop is a testament to this when there’s an element of contrast to break things up.  But despite bouts of brilliance, Twinkle misses its ambiguous mark, and I’d rather just listen to “Need You Tonight.”
[4]

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