This Is For: Album Review
The mighty K-pop machine has given rise to a myriad girl groups, but few are as enduring and beloved as Twice. Twice’s nine members – Nayeon, Jeongyeon, Momo, Sana, Jihyo, Mina, Dahyun, Chaeyoung and Tzuyu – were assembled via the reality TV competition Sixteen, named for the overall number of contestants. The group has released over 250 songs since their debut in October 2015, dipping into styles from city pop to dubstep. Aided by a wide array of songwriters and producers, the group have maintained a relentless release schedule and consistently made some of the most enjoyable music K-pop has to offer.
In 2002, 15-year-old singer BoA became the first Korean artist to top the Japanese charts with her album Listen to My Heart. In the following years, groups such as TVXQ (known in Japan as Tohoshinki), Kara and Girls’ Generation gained huge transnational popularity, and Japan remains the biggest global market for K-pop. In order to capitalise on this demand, it is common for K-pop acts to make music specifically targeted towards their Japanese audience. Twice are no exception, releasing both original Japanese songs and remakes of their Korean work. Their sizeable Japanese discography contains some of their best music: singles such as ‘Breakthrough’ and ‘Perfect World’ are among the group’s strongest, regardless of language.
Though Japan may be K-pop’s hungriest consumer, it isn’t the only market the industry is eager to cater to. Given the rising popularity of K-pop in anglophone countries, especially the United States, it has become increasingly commonplace for groups to release music sung primarily or fully in English. In 2018, Twice took a puzzling first step into all-English music with their cover of The Jackson 5’s ‘I Want You Back’. In the years that followed, the group released more than a dozen English songs, scattered across various projects, and collaborated with artists from Coldplay to Megan Thee Stallion. Twice’s growing proclivity for English music culminated in This Is For, their ninth studio album released on the 11th of July 2025. Although it was marketed as the group’s fourth Korean full-length, eleven of its fourteen songs are entirely in English.
While American and European producers have contributed to Twice’s albums since the beginning of their career, This Is For’s credits contain more prominent Western hitmakers than ever before. American songwriter Amy Allen is most notable for co-writing Sabrina Carpenter’s biggest hits, including ‘Espresso’, ‘Please Please Please’ and ‘Manchild’; she has also written for other huge stars such as Harry Styles, Olivia Rodrigo and Rosé. Allen contributed to two songs on This Is For – ‘Let Love Go’ and ‘Seesaw’ – and both are high points of the album. ‘Let Love Go’ is a pleasant, energetic number with thoughtful lyrics about growing stronger after heartbreak, whereas ‘Seesaw’ is calm yet emotionally potent, the members’ soft vocals sitting atop a synth ostinato travelling from ear to ear. Also offering his services to the album is fellow Berklee graduate and Sabrina Carpenter collaborator John Ryan. ‘Peach Gelato’, written and produced by Ryan alongside Julian Bunetta and Mick Coogan, is sweet, but short and rather uninteresting. The song could have easily padded out one of Twice’s early EPs, with the addition of some Korean lyrics and an extra minute of runtime.
This Is For zips through fourteen songs in thirty-six minutes. While this means the album never drags, it also proves there is such a thing as too streamlined; half of the songs are shorter than two minutes and thirty seconds. Not counting intro ‘Four’, the shortest of the bunch is ‘Hi Hello’, with a paltry runtime of two minutes and seven seconds. With its smooth blend of English and Korean, ‘Hi Hello’ is very likeable, but it is kneecapped by its pitiful length. An even more frustrating waste of potential is not-quite album standout ‘Mars’. Propelled by bright synths and a punchy bassline, ‘Mars’ reaches exuberant heights in the chorus, and is further elevated by strong vocal performances from Jihyo and Nayeon. For the most part, the song feels like classic Twice. However, it is doubtful ‘Mars’ would have ended, rather abruptly, after the second post-chorus, had it been released a few years earlier. In recent times, the typical length of K-pop songs has trended down, with many forgoing bridges and third choruses. It would make sense for a fledgling K-pop group to go along with what’s in vogue in order to sustain their popularity, but it feels unbecoming of an established group like Twice to kowtow to current pop trends.
Another casualty of the two-minute plague sweeping the album is the title track. Twice’s singles discography is the greatest of any K-pop act, but ‘This Is For’ fails to meet the standard set by their previous work. Hurrying by in just two minutes and eleven seconds, the song ends just as it is beginning to find its footing. In contrast to the infectious melodies of previous English singles ‘The Feels’ and ‘Moonlight Sunrise’ – not to mention immortal Korean hits like ‘What Is Love?’ and ‘Fancy’ – the chanted hook of ‘This Is For’ fails to stick. If it was a non-single nestled deep in the tracklist, ‘This Is For’ wouldn’t merit a whole paragraph, but its role as the centrepiece of the album makes its shortcomings stand out more.
Fortunately, after the disappointing title track, the album picks up immediately. In its opening seconds, ‘Options’ hooks the listener with dreamy harp and strings, establishing the airy, playful mood of the song. The production, provided by Earattack and CQ, sounds suitably luxurious throughout. Above all, ‘Options’ is an efficient demonstration of Twice’s maturation. The group’s early hits were filled with limerence and the members anxiously urging boys to declare their love. That girlish infatuation is gone here, replaced with an easy confidence: Twice warn a suitor not to grow too attached, as there are a plethora of other men lining up for them to choose from. It is telling that the two best songs on the album, ‘Options’ and ‘Seesaw’, are also among the longest. As good as ‘Options’ is, it has the distressing side effect of making one pine for a version of This Is For where the rest of the songs are similarly fleshed out..
Dwayne Abernathy Jr. is the most prolific and notable K-pop producer to emerge in the last decade. Known professionally as Dem Jointz, he has worked with numerous K-pop acts and gained fame for his distinctive, polarising sound. This Is For marks Dem Jointz’s first collaboration with Twice, and ‘Battitude’ – performed by Nayeon, Jeongyeon, Momo and Mina – pushes their music to new and exciting places. Despite their dutiful adherence to the K-pop policy of mandatory rap verses, Twice have never been a group known for their prowess as emcees. Whenever they have swung for full-on hip-hop in the past, the results have been ropey: ‘Hello’ was the only thing about Formula of Love: O+T=＜3 nearly as bad as its title. Working with an experienced hip-hop producer – Dem Jointz’s roster of clients also includes Dr. Dre, Eminem and Kanye West – does wonders. Compared to other Dem Jointz-produced songs, ‘Battitude’ is nowhere near as discombobulating, but its buzzing bass and brass stabs still leave a strong impression. Lacklustre performances could have easily sunk the whole ship, but the members deliver their lines with appropriate conceit; Momo, especially, has the impudent charisma needed to make ‘Battitude’ effective.
While ‘Battitude’ is great fun, not every song on This Is For with similar lyrical themes fares as well. ‘G.O.A.T’, performed by Mina, Dahyun and Chaeyoung, has plenty of self-assurance, but lacks the quality to back it up. The song was produced by Choi Seung-hyuk, who works under the name Versachoi. His only previous collaboration with Twice is 2019’s ‘Love Foolish’, a highlight of one of Twice’s best releases, the Feel Special EP. Despite his obvious skill, he misses the mark here, providing ‘G.O.A.T’ with flat, rather dull production. Versachoi’s signature bombastic synths and electric guitars are absent, and it feels as though he is unsuited for such a laid-back song. The lyrics, too, cement ‘G.O.A.T’ as a low point of the album. The song was written by a pair of Swedes, Gusten Dahlqvist and Arineh Karimi, which explains the awkward usage of African-American slang. Dahyun’s line, ‘make a brother wanna pull up’ is particularly egregious.
This Is For is a good album, but it could have been a great one. The handful of unremarkable songs and, above all, its ephemerality, prevents it from standing amongst Twice’s best work; even so, there is a lot to appreciate. Although almost every song on This Is For was written and produced by a completely different set of people, the album still manages to flow smoothly, and it includes memorable instrumental touches such as the harp in ‘Options’ and the mellow guitar solo in closer ‘Heartbreak Avenue’. Pop stardom is notoriously fickle, but Twice have long left an indelible mark on K-pop and reached the stage where they have nothing left to prove. As they enter the second decade of their career, they continue to explore new ground musically, and This Is For leaves me excited for whatever they will do next.