The curiosity about love is what fuels TWICE, as they release What is Love; it is about the confusion about love and the curiosity about love that they have only seen in a movie or a book. What is Love is the title of TWICE’s fifth EP that was released on April 9th, 2018. The EP consists of six tracks that are mainly about love but from different perspectives. Just like how What is Love is about the confusion about love, other songs bring other topics. One of the tracks in the What is Love EP is “Sweet Talker”. The part “Oh Ah” from “Sweet Talker” narrated by Sana is what stands out the most in “Sweet Talker”.
Background of “Sweet Talker”
The confirmation of TWICE’s comeback was announced on February 26th, 2018, by JYP Entertainment. Later, on March 25th, 2018, it was announced that the title of TWICE’s EP would be What is Love. The teasers for the members were then released for consecutive days and on March 30th, 2018, the full tracklist with the details was announced. It was announced that Jihyo, Chaeyoung, and Jeongyeon had participated in writing the lyrics. Chaeyoung and Jeongyeon wrote the lyrics for “Sweet Talker” together. Then, on April 3rd, days before the EP’s release, JYP Entertainment released the highlight medley featuring spoilers for tracks from What is Love, including spoilers for “Sweet Talker”.
Story of “Sweet Talker”
What is Love is the exploration about love including all the experiences one person going through while trying to understand love. This includes “Sweet Talker”. “Sweet Talker” that was written by Chaeyoung and Jeongyeon talks about how sweet one person is with words, so sweet that they can melt someone else’s heart. But those sweet words can turn into poison that can deceive another person who receives the words, that’s why there’s a part saying “don’t be deceived by the sweet talker” in the chorus. This song that has a catchy melody is heavily influenced by music mixed with percussions that can linger in one’s mind once they hear it. The song might be sweet, but the lyrics are not as sweet as you might initially think. It’s saying that one person’s expectations about sweet words from a sweet talker can make one’s thinking of a happy ending but in the end, they might not receive the happy ending they have been after. That’s why TWICE warn us not to be deceived by sweet talkers. Sana said that the song really suits TWICE and while distributing the lyric, they thought that the “Oh Ah” part would suit Sana’s cute voice, and when they were recording they thought that they made the right decision because Sana’s voice really fits the part and makes the song more catchy.
“Sweet Talker” Performance
The song “Sweet Talker” became a highlight song that has been performed in several TWICE concerts. Among them are TWICE’s 2nd Tour: Twiceland Zone 2 – Fantasy Park and also their concert in Tokyo Dome.
“Sweet Talker” Achievements
The EP What Is Love itself receives quite positive reviews that said that it might be their best album since their debut, at the time. The critics also stated that “Sweet Talker” is one of the highlight songs on the EP. Even though “Sweet Talker” is not the title song of the EP, it charted well on several streaming sites.