Leaning into the Kayfabe: Twice Formula of Love: O+T=<3

When it goes right down to brass tacks, K-pop is kayfabe. It’s a professional wrestling term for the suspension of disbelief that fans experience when watching a match. You know the plotlines are artificial, and the moves don’t hurt, but you believe everything you see. The success of a K-pop act hinges on selling a thoroughly believable narrative no matter how engineered it is.

Enter Formula of Love: O+T=<3, Twice’s third full album. The formula is that love is equal to the combination of Twice and Once, the name of their ever-growing fanbase. The kayfabe, in this case, is that this album is essentially a love letter to the fans.

Taken as it is, the album has a more chill sound than the usual Twice fare. People expecting a more bombastic outing ala the stylings of I Can’t Stop Me will find this a muted affair.

However, despite the slightly lower energy permeating the album, it still has the imprimatur of Twice  – a saccharine sound that never encroaches on the too cloying. And despite the retro stylings of the album, it still sounds fresh somehow and is a thoroughly enjoyable listen.

The album starts with Scientist, a song that has weaponized the bass line into an earworm that you’ll randomly remember right before you go to sleep. The next song, Moonlight, is a Michael Jackson-inspired tune that I feel will be a regular at wedding after-parties.

Their strongest song, however, is Icon. It’s an in-your-face, look at me haters, I’m on top of the world challenge to everyone. It also features a genius 8-bar sequence with Son Chaeyoung – a talent that I think is rarely used to its full advantage. I could even say it’s damn iconic.

The album then segues to familiar notes, hitting us what we regularly expect from Twice albums. More danceable hits, a ballad here and there, the almost ASMRish Espresso, and then hits us with a tear-jerker in Cactus, which unexpectedly, is a song about an actual cactus that died while it was in Jihyo’s care.  This first half feels like it’s all about exploring tried and true formulas with Twice injecting their signature into the sound.

The next half of the album is more of experimentation. The addition of sub-unit songs was genius and allowed the album to branch off in new and exciting ways. Push and Pull, from Sana, Jihyo, and Dahyun sounds closer to the edgier sound pushed in their Japanese comebacks. Hello by Nayeon, Momo, and Chaeyoung, has the three spitting white-hot bars in the most fun track on the album. And in 1, 3, 2, we find the quietest members of the group, Jeongyeon, Mina, and Tzuyu, in an inspired island-rhythms track that will get you sipping Pina Coladas in no time.

Then the album brings us back to what makes Twice who they are with The Feels, their first all-English song. It’s a celebration of all things Twice packaged for the American audience.

In the end, this is Twice at its most confident and willfully subverting expectations.  “Formula of Love: O+T=<3” is probably their best album to date and is a must-have for any true Once and is the perfect introduction to newcomers to Twice.

If we extend that wrestling metaphor, this album is John Cena, doing the Five Knuckle Shuffle and winning with the Attitude Adjustment. Not the most bombastic of moves, certainly no RKO or 619, but enjoyable and entertaining nonetheless. It’s certainly effective in giving us a brand new Twice experience.

More importantly, however, is the kayfabe intact? Do we suspend our disbelief and buy into the story that Twice is truly, madly, deeply in love with their fans? The answer is yes. It might even be the truth in this case.

Read also

• The Album in your area
• #ReadShine: Is it all fair in love and Kpop?
• BTS reunites with fans at Map of the Soul ON:E virtual concert