Twice (song)

"Twice" was solely written by Kirby Lauryen, while co-producing along with Sandy Chila and instrumentation from H. Amarr.[5][6] On May 10, 2018, Aguilera posted a video on her Twitter account in which she teased the release of a song from her then-upcoming eight studio album, Liberation (2018), stating that she loves the song's "raw vocal quality" and the "spiritual emotion and tone" it conveys.[7][8] The track was released for digital download and streaming as the first promotional single from Liberation on May 11, 2018 by RCA Records.[1] Musically, "Twice" has been described as a soulful ballad[9][10][11] with a length of four minutes and two seconds.[5] According to the sheet music published at Musicnotes.com by Sony/ATV Music Publishing, the song is performed in the key of F♯ Minor with a moderately slow tempo of 75 beats per minute. Aguilera's vocals span from E₃ to F₅.[12]

Jon Pareles from New York Times said that "Twice" "mournfully ponders sin, forgiveness and redemption",[13] while Chuck Arnold from New York Post described the song as a "haunting piano ballad".[14] Furthermore, Arnold felt that Aguilera displayed "softer, more subtle shades of her delivery" in order to demonstrate "what a great singer can do when it’s all about the song — and the voice".[14] Nicholas Hautman of Us Weekly stated that "Twice" is Aguilera's best song since "Hurt", noting its "contemplative and stripped-down nature".[15] Neil McCormick from The Daily Telegraph considered that Aguilera sounded "like a one-woman Fleetwood Mac" and praised "her rich low notes fluttering effortlessly up to falsetto with no loss of control".[16] During a review for Liberation for PopCrush, Bobby Olivier called "Twice" "a sparse and pensive track" and described the intro of the song as "harmonic".[17] Althea Legapsi from Rolling Stone opined that the lyrics contemplate "the duality that can be found with love",[18] and Mike Nied from Idolator deemed the singer's voice, calling it "as strong as ever before".[19]

Although the song was never promoted with an official music video, a conceptual visual video—created by Aguilera and her team—was released on May 11, 2018.[20][21][22] It was meant to express the singer's thankfulness for her fans' support, and contains a spiritual, naturalist theme: Aguilera is seen submerged in water, and those scenes are followed by close-ups of flowers.[20] Aguilera called the visuals "personal" and believed they "set a tone behind the feel of the music as a kind of backdrop".[20][21] She said the video was shot because she "felt inspired by the themes of duality and inner struggle in 'Twice'".[20][21]

• Audio on YouTube