Song Review: TWS – Last Festival

TWS has been a musical balm this 2024, offering structurally diverse bursts of exciting pop when everyone else was going beige and repetitive. To me, there hasn’t been a debut year this airtight in years and now the guys are tying a bow on their successful 2024 with a shift to a more sentimental sound. Last Festival (마지막 축제) acts as a send-off to this era while simultaneously appealing to current trends in a way their music hasn’t attempted yet.

Last Festival references the 1993 Seo Taiji & Boys song of the same name, though apart from the fireworks sample I don’t hear much connective tissue in the music. I didn’t have “TWS does afro beats” on my 2024 bingo card, but Festival bends that genre to its will, connecting it with K-pop melody and the chill, subdued tone that’s become so popular lately. To be honest, I don’t want “chill, subdued” music from TWS. Their energy is precisely what’s made them so captivating this year. But if they must go down this route, Last Festival is about as strong a version we could hope for.

Though the energy is very reserved throughout, there’s a fullness to the production that makes it more compelling than first glance. The synths have a fluid, dreamlike quality that feels as if you’re swimming through the track. There are repetitive moments to the melody, but Last Festival largely avoids the monotonous sing-talk that can often plague this type of song. Its lengthy frame offers room for a bridge that builds to a satisfying peak and keeps the track from flatlining. More importantly, there are at least two melodic high points that anchor the track — most notably during its gorgeous pre-chorus. Last Festival is far from my favorite TWS single, but I have a feeling it will enjoy a long life on both the charts and my own playlist.

Grade: B+