Between Korea and Japan, barely a month goes by without new music from Twice. This prolific release schedule should be an asset, but all it’s doing is making each song feel interchangeable with the last. And now, we’re approaching the point of over saturation. Underwhelming Korean single What Is Love suffered a bit from this, but it’s their Japanese work that’s bearing the brunt of Twice exhaustion.

Wake Me Up is the worst of the j-pop bunch, delivering an insipid, sing-song hook that feels better suited to a child’s TV show than the biggest girl group in Korea. Even at its best, Twice’s performance style can verge on cloying, but it becomes downright obnoxious when paired with material this sickly saccharine. From the opening chants (can we please stop with those, JYP?) to the ultra-familiar snare drum-heavy verses, the entire song comes across as an amateur re-creation of their more iconic work.

And then there’s that chorus, which I honestly don’t ever want to hear again. Its impossibly perky refrain is like an alarm clock that refuses to be silenced until it dulls you into submission. There’s no modulation or dynamics — just unrelenting, forced cheer that’s already exhausting the moment you hear it. At this point, Twice’s music is an easy cash-grab, and I get that. But if they don’t start taking risks and pushing their sound in new (preferably mature) directions, the novelty is bound to wear off. And even more worringly, the quality of their discography will begin to lose standing when stacked against other groups of similar success level.

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