Update: Dreamcatcher decided to start selling NFTs, going directly against their own message about climate change. You can read my post about it here.

Preface

I’m having mixed feelings about this album. To put it simply, I forgot I was listening to Dreamcatcher halfway through the album.

In short, it doesn’t sound like a Dreamcatcher album, it sounds too much like modern pop with much of Dreamcatcher’s original, unique characteristics being underrepresented. I know the solo tracks have deliberately different musical directions based on each member’s style (with Siyeon’s being the best), but it feels the same even without these tracks.

I don’t hate this album or anything, I just feel a bit disappointed because it feels like their target audience has changed.

That’s the TL;DR done, but if you want to know more about my personal experience with Dreamcatcher over the last 5 years, read on.

A brief self-introduction

The type of music I listen to

Just to get this out of the way, I don’t really like pop. I find the majority of pop music bland, dull, and repetitive—pop songs sound virtually identical and I have trouble differentiating them from each other.

My favourite genres include variants of rock such as pop-punk, punk rock, alternative rock, and pop rock (Avril Lavigne, Daughtry, Paramore, etc.)
I also have a soft spot for older, retro Korean music and ballads. Some examples include IU, JANNABI, Im Chang-Jung and Lee Seung-Gi.

I also listen to a lot of soundtracks from various productions.

You can criticise my preferences just like how I’ve criticised pop music; I won’t take it personally, as the world is big enough for all of us to have our own musical preferences.

How I listen to music

Apart from some live performances, I don’t listen to music using YouTube and rarely watch music videos. I usually listen to music using either Apple Music lossless, TIDAL, or CDs, and I’m slightly obsessed with audio (but not too much).

I am aware that people do analyses of the music videos and choreography, but I’m mostly only interested in what’s in the CD; I’m not going to go through a music video frame-by-frame analysing every pixel for hidden meanings.

I listen to music by albums instead of by individual songs. To me, albums are just really long songs, and it defeats the point to separate, shuffle or skip parts of them—albums are ordered in a certain way for a reason.

My main audio setup includes a JDS Atom + OL DAC stack and a Sennheiser HD6XX with custom cables (because the stiff stock cables are a pain). These are not affiliate links—this setup is so old JDS doesn’t even sell the same model I have anymore—I just put the links there so you know what I’m talking about.

Damsels in distress and appealing to the masses

I don’t like the damsel in distress theme. While I may enjoy a story where a knight in shining armour rescues a beautiful princess, it gets really old when I start seeing it everywhere.

As it stands, it’s not a unique concept, and more importantly I don’t think it fits Dreamcatcher. From the supernatural nightmares, incantations and curses from “Chase Me” and “Good Night”, it is difficult to imagine how they became helpless damsels in need of saving.

The concept of weakness and needing to be saved, both go against my impression of Dreamcatcher. I remember comments from when “Chase Me” was first released, where many girls would gush over how Dreamcatcher goes against this very concept that they too were sick and tired of.

The damsel in distress theme is very popular because it aligns well with our instinctual desires, and is usually a guaranteed appeal to most people. Of course, just because steak is nice doesn’t mean I want to eat it every day; too much of a good thing is never a good thing.

My first impression of Dreamcatcher

I first heard of Dreamcatcher after the release of “Chase Me” 5 years ago. I had overheard it from someone else’s K-pop mix, and was immediately drawn in to how unique it sounded.

Since then, I’ve been listening to and buying every single one of their albums. Whenever an album was released, I would listen to the CDs in their original quality while reading the lyrics from the book before carefully putting everything back and storing them on my shelf. As someone who almost never buys any albums, the fact my shelf consists of only Dreamcatcher albums (all special pre-order editions) is quite special to me.

I know, using the “I’m actually a big fan” cliche to try and defend myself from criticism can potentially backfire, but I like Dreamcatcher and this post isn’t about me giving up on them or anything.

I fell in love with their unique horror and rock theme. I haven’t been interested in any girl groups prior to them, but seeing their concept was like a breath of fresh air which led to me becoming very interested in them.

Down the rabbit hole

Their next song, “Good Night“, was set in the same canonical timeline as “Chase Me”. I was impressed by the fact that both songs formed a story together—this level of creativity was very rare in K-pop. I started to follow them as artists and keeping up with everything they did.

They weren’t as popular back then, and I remember finding their V-Live channel and helping with some early subtitles (in hindsight they were bad and I’m sorry).

I will not be talking about their Japanese releases as I don’t understand Japanese and can’t evaluate them fairly.

My V-Live adventure (and how I fought for first place)

You can read about my V-Live adventure here.

Long story short, I was so invested in them I even competed for first place on the leaderboards, which I stubbornly held for over 3 months before giving it up.

2017: The Prequel

For the longest time, I never realised Ollounder and LEEZ were part of Super Bomb, which caused a bit of mild panic when I saw Ollounder and LEEZ in the Prequel album credits instead of Super Bomb. The album turned out well: it retains the essence that made them unique to begin with, with tracks like “Wake Up”, and “Trust Me” following their previous two ballads “Emotion” and “Lullaby”.

I was happy to see them continuing their ballads with “Trust Me” in their first mini album, as “Lullaby” was my second-favourite song from their first two single albums and I was looking forward to more ballads.

2018: The first Mayday

The next album (Nightmare – Escape the ERA) was especially interesting, because it included a theme I didn’t expect from Dreamcatcher: the damsel in distress, with the lyrics of “Mayday” alluding to an unexpected shift in power—it was very surprising. This was my favourite album then, though it’s harder to decide now.

The damsel in distress theme works here because it was the first time it was used, and it was done well. “Mayday” was the only song from the album I tried fully translating (still WIP 3 years later though) because I liked it so much. It was a heartbreaking song.

“You and I” was another fantastic song. Supernatural, horror, love; it’s the first time they’ve had a love song as their title, and it’s really, really good. The music is nice, the lyrics are lovely yet scary at the same time, and the vocal performance was top-notch.

My favourite line at [2:22] where Siyeon sings “하나 [hana]” in the most playful yet unbelievably charming way still gives me chills to this day, as well as JiU’s verse at [2:40] “다 잊어버려 혼자였던 시간” (lit. forget all the time you’ve spent alone). Her angelic voice delivers this touching line perfectly and I can’t imagine anyone else singing this part.

Unfortunately, YouTube loses some of the nuances that make the lines sound so good due to audio compression.

Also, it’s been a long time since I last watched one of their MVs, and I’m noticing that their clothes here are… kind of weird? That’s not the thing I’m thinking of, is it? No matter, it’s not the strangest MV I’ve watched.

2018: Alone in the City

This was one of their worst albums in my opinion, with only the ballad “July 7th” being noteworthy. I don’t know “What” they were thinking with their title track, and the inclusion of “Trap” has them leaning even closer towards the damsel in distress theme.

The physical album’s quality was also subpar, which may have subconsciously affected my perspective of this album.

2019: The End of Nightmare

This has a catchy title track with the introduction of a novel instrument. Their popularity has been increasing quite rapidly ever since they moved to a larger target audience, but they’re still retaining their rock elements.

Overall, it’s not a bad album. “Diamond” is my favourite track from this album as its lyrics are powerful and empowering.

2019: King’s Raid: The Album

Okay it’s actually called Raid of Dream, and I know it’s technically an EP, but the special pre-order edition this time was way too grand for an EP (I’m not complaining though!)

Dreamcatcher’s been leaning more and more towards pop for a while now, but this album had some pretty nice electronic rock elements, especially the instrumental solo in “Silent Night” from [2:45] onwards.

2020: R.o.S.E BLUE

Like Deja Vu, this was another collaboration they did with a mobile game. It’s one of my favourites, and I highly recommend listening to the instrumental. It also proves that they can make a sad song that isn’t themed around weakness and wanting to be saved.

2020: Dystopia: The Tree of Language

This was chronologically before R.o.S.E BLUE, but I thought R.o.S.E Blue would fit better right below Deja Vu since they’re both collaborations.

A lot of nice songs in this one, I’m really happy they included their first anniversary’s “Full Moon” in this album as I’ve been waiting for it for a long time. Themes of weakness and distress are hardly found here. Instead, we have playful, catchy songs like “Black Or White” and “Jazz Bar”.
I actually pre-ordered all 4 versions of this album to before realising I fell for a Pokemon marketing gimmick (no regrets).

There was only one song I didn’t like in this album: “SAHARA” has a very sharp, screeching noise (cymbals?) in the chorus that physically hurts to listen to, forcing me to skip every time.

I also like that they included Siyeon’s first song in the album. It’s a very nice song, and Siyeon looked really happy when it was first released; it’s great that her talent and efforts are being generously used: from helping her with her own song to including it in their first full album.

2020: Dystopia : Lose Myself

The thunderstorm effects from the start of “BOCA” sounds impressive, but the characteristics of the stock sound effect started to stand out after a while due to the abrupt transition.

I feel like the Dystopia series is often misunderstood, and that misunderstanding almost made me accuse “BOCA” of abject virtue-signalling. What did I expect from YouTube comments anyway?

“Can’t get you out of my mind” is a fun song, and is their first song to date that’s entirely in English. Lyrically, it’s just a normal love song, but it has a very catchy and interesting beat. I like it.

2021: Dystopia : Road to Utopia

“Odd Eye” has the second-highest view count at the time of writing. It’s very recognisably Dreamcatcher, and I do like this song. The lyrics* barely allude to the damsel in distress theme, and it’s more of general despair than demonstrating weakness and asking to be saved.

*”Scream”, “BOCA”, and “Odd Eye” are a trilogy, and their meaning is only clear after looking at all of them together. This post by Wandering Holy is the most consistent, elegant, and logical theory I’ve seen to date.

I believe the trilogy is less of an active, positive take towards modern day issues such as cyberbullying more than a pessimistic relenting and eventual acceptance of the cruel reality, though that’s not how the majority of people saw “BOCA” (which has the most number of views to date), which led to many new fans with very different expectations, many in praise of how Dreamcatcher is unique because they talk in support of real world issues.

It’s not wrong, but I don’t think the eventual defeat in “Odd Eye” really sends the same, positive message more than reaffirming how terrible the world will always be no matter what you do as you slowly lose hope and give up.

There is a more positive way of looking at it, however. If escaping into an alternate reality doesn’t solve any problems, it could easily mean that nothing will change if we pretend the problem doesn’t exist (if we run away from our problems), and that we will have to face the problems eventually. Though, this isn’t explicitly covered in the trilogy and it’s just something I made up.

By the way, this album also includes their best ballad to date: “4 Memory”:

It’s very hard to translate, as it’s written in such an elegant and poetic manner that it completely shatters English grammar, which is a shame because it’s a very beautiful song. It may be a regular pop love song, but it’s a very artistic and heartwarming one (and super sweet).

I couldn’t find any good translations of the chorus, so here is my attempt:

따뜻했던 봄이 가고
“from the warm spring”

소나기 같은 한여름 밤의 기역
“to the memory of a summer night’s rain”

가을이 오면 모닥불 옆의 우리
“from the autumn beside the bonfire”

얼어붙은 내 손 잡던 겨울까지
“to the winter where you held my freezing hand”

모두 기억해
“Remember it all”

Like I said, it’s very difficult to translate because it’s written in a very information-dense manner characteristic of most artistic poetry. I ended up having to use some artistic liberty in order to try and keep it, well, artistic, so it’s not entirely accurate.

Summer Holiday

This is not a bad album. “BEcause” is both fun and somewhat scary at the same time, while providing a nice, temporary change of style.
“Whistle” is very catchy, and is my favourite track from the album.

Overall, it’s a fun, relatively lighthearted album and it’s nice to see them exploring different genres from time to time even if the lyrics are quite standard for pop music.

Back to [Apocalypse : Save Us]

This album… is unrecognisable at best. In terms of genre and style of music, it bears little resemblance to any of their previous albums, and leans way too heavily into the theme of needing to be saved, in this case “MAISON”, though being obviously about climate change.

The topic is very isolated from their concept, and is completely unprecedented. Again, I don’t think it’s bad, and it’s commendable that they’re trying to address modern issues like climate change, but it feels very out of place for a Dreamcatcher album.

I think it should have been released as part of a separate or spin-off album like Summer Holiday, but it doesn’t change what I believe is the real problem: the change in musical direction.

First of all, I want to address the elephant in the room: the solo tracks. This is the first time they’ve had a solo track for each member, with the last one being “just” Siyeon’s “Paradise” in Dystopia: ToL. Each solo song was co-written by the respective artist in their own style, with Handong even adding Chinese lyrics to her song to give it a more personal touch.

I’m not using these songs to signify a change in musical direction as they’re literally supposed to be different, so this isn’t about the solo tracks.

The rest of the songs (including instrumentals #1 & #7) have little to no rock elements. They sound a lot softer (toned-down) and emptier, the pacing is slower, and they don’t sound anything like Dreamcatcher.

The tracks here are largely reminiscent of modern K-pop and maybe some J-pop; I thought I accidentally clicked on a TWICE album or something by accident while listening to it, only to become further confused when I realised I did not.

There’s really nothing about this album that’s horror or rock, and I’m not quite sure what I’m listening to it as it’s all… love songs?

If the singers were replaced in a blind test, I wouldn’t be able to tell this song was by Dreamcatcher, which I find unbelievable because I’ve been listening to them since the start.

Excluding their ballad (as usual), none of the songs in this album are particularly memorable.

Now to the solo tracks: this is where you pick your favourite members and only add their songs to your playlist.

That said, I found Dami’s “Beauty Full” really enjoyable—it’s like an opening track for a lighthearted anime/cartoon with several nostalgic elements, so maybe just listen to all of them and add the ones you like instead of just your favourite member’s.

Then there’s Siyeon’s “Entrancing”, who even uses the classic chime/sparkly effect (I think it’s called a glitter effect?) from more traditional effect throughout the song, adding a beautiful layer of authenticity.

There are too many good things about this song for me to know where to start. Her voice is dynamic, powerful, and gentle—I could really see her making a career out of this genre, and I’m really happy the genre she chose is one that I also like: it sounds like traditional music and soundtrack from a Chinese Wuxia drama.

Closing thoughts

I’ve been waiting to write about Dreamcatcher for a long time, and this was a good opportunity to do so.

[Apocalypse : Save Us] really does not sound like a Dreamcatcher album. This is the only strong opinion among everything I’ve said so far—I don’t really care about the rest as much since I modify them all the time anyway.

I don’t mind that Dreamcatcher has changed over the years; though I still want them to remain unique, I understand that it’s not always possible in reality as it often means targeting a smaller audience. It could even be a change in their own preferences, like Paramore’s After Laughter album, though the difference here is that Paramore became even more unique instead.

To be honest, I haven’t purchased any albums after Dystopia: Lose Myself, and have stopped trying to keep up with everything after that point. FOMO is real, and it causes more problems than anyone should be allowed to deal with. Nowadays, I only keep up with their album releases, which is sufficient enough for me and has done wonders for my mental health.

Thanks for reading! This article went on longer than I expected, but it was definitely fun reminiscing about the last few years.