Album Review: Dreamcatcher - Apocalypse: Follow Us
Dreamcatcher are back with a new EP, continuing their Apocalypse series from earlier this year. As a result, I get to review another album!
Intro: Chaotical X
I love the pounding trance beat right here, it adds a nice layer of drama to open the album with. Golden Child and Dreamcatcher are the only major idol groups still doing intros, and they add so much character to albums.
Vision
Dreamcatcher's previous single, Maison, set a high bar for Vision to cross, and I am not sure that Vision's heavier rock-influenced chorus keeps up with the best of Maison. The big issue comes down to flow. While Vision has arguably much better moments, it lacks the fluidity of movement that made Maison an instant highlight. Nonetheless, Vision's harder edge provides a few unique benefits, notably the explosive finale for the song, adding a hefty dose of rock guitar. What a solid end to the song.
Rating: 8.25/10
Fairytale
Fairytale's theatric opening is a wonderful way to tease the following song. Ditching the group's new harder sound, Fairytale is pure anime opening soft-rock anthem. It isn't exactly unique or fresh, but it works quite well with Dreamcatcher's set sound. Particular note for the surging guitar riff again, it is quite fun!
Rating: 8/10
Some Love
Some Love brings some classic funk to Dreamcatcher's sound. This could work, and I really love the crashing synths in the chorus, but Some Love feels more like a placeholder. It is a very good placeholder, and I could see Dreamcatcher continuing down this sound path, but the song still needs some polishing.
Rating: 7.75/10
Rainy Day
Rainy Day is a classic K-Pop album filler. A generic piano ballad that sounds nice, but does nothing special. Rainy Day is fine, and I actually enjoy Dreamcatcher's vocal performance, but it comes of as "Serviceable" rather than anything special.
Rating: 7/10
Outro: Mother Nature
The album outro is fine, but I feel the moombahton feels tired here, but at least the percussion creates some drama. This feels more like a teaser for the concluding chapter of this trilogy, rather than a proper album ender.
Cumulative Score: 7.75/10
Overall Rating: 6.5/10
Purchase and listen to Dreamcatcher's Apocalypse: Follow Us right here!
Dreamcatcher's Apocalypse series has provided some highlights, but I keep waiting to hear a Maison-esque highlight on this second chapter that never arrived. Thankfully, Dreamcatcher have more than enough highlights in their discography to keep me busy until their next release.
Image Source: K-Pop Wiki
Ahh I agree with you about the overall mini album being not as strong compared to their past entries. I found myself playing 'Fairytale' A LOT though, even if I do agree with you that the anime opening anthem sound isn't unique.
ReplyDeleteAs for 'Vision'... I think it's pretty solid. Maybe the reason on why a lot of us don't feel as enthusiastic about it because it feels... formuliac? Which is hilarious when we keep harping on why artists should stick to their guns. Dreamcatcher are literally one of the best examples in K-pop for this.
You can definitely tell LEEZ and Ollounder are trying really hard in making each title track sound different from each other, even if some title tracks don't hit *as* hard compared to the group's older works.
Speaking of LEEZ, I'm curious on how the music will turn out for both ATEEZ and (especially) Dreamcatcher's since he:
1) became the new music director for another company.
2) is not part of team Edenary anymore because of (1)
You see, for me, there is a thin line between maintaining discographic consistency and experimenting with your sound. Scream and Maison both were within the larger soundscape of Dreamcatcher's dark and mystical rock, but both sound very different from each other, and the base, 2017-19 Dreamcatcher sound. Scream added operatic influences, and Maison played around with tempo and momentum. With Vision, it feels formulaic as it pretty much identical to their post-2019 soundscape, and the larger J-Rock influenced scene a a whole. Leez and Ollunder are clearly trying, but an occasional miss like this will eventually happen.
DeleteWow, LEEZ has left Edenary?! How did I miss that news? If you don't mind me asking, which company is he the music director for now. Either way, this is the end of an era, as he was arguably the core behind the growth of ATEEZ and Dreamcatcher's spectacular fandom scenes.
Sorry for the late reply, I was pretty busy this week lol.
Hey no worries on the late reply. I hope you've been doing well within your busy life! Your wellbeing is more important :)
DeleteThanks for bringing up and expanding upon your Scream and Maison comparison vs how Vision feels way more predictable. (I still can't believe Scream was released 2 years ago...). I haven't listened to Maison in a while but the detail you mentioned does make me see why Maison is still more memorable than Vision.
From an outsider perspective it's funny when something like 'Vision' is not a bad song per say. There's far worse 'misses' by other artists. But it stings thinking how 'Vision' is compared to the group's other works.
And about LEEZ... Yeah, it's true :(
Back in September I saw some people on Twitter panicked when Team Edenary doesn't follow LEEZ's Instagram account anymore. Here's one tweet by a fan that noticed the change: https://twitter.com/Atinalii/status/1567801348162297861
And also further confirmed when the individual Edenary members congratulated LEEZ: https://twitter.com/vasilissaadair/status/1567835824628322305
Seeing many fans being both happy and scared at this news just goes to show just how much of an impact a composer has on an artist's work. It's bittersweet, 'cause like you said he's been such a core member of ATEEZ's and Dreamcatcher's music. But overall it's such good news to see a composer get an opportunity like this.
Back from another hiatus, sorry. Took to long, but I have reformed my blog finally!
DeleteScream is 2.5 years old! No I already feel like a grandpa now lol. But yeah, Vision being only okay shows Dreamcatcher's consistency.
Thanks for the links! Oh darn. This is a major issue for both ATEEZ and Dreamcatcher. I can see ATEEZ continue without a major hitch due to Eden leading, but there will certainly be an impact on Dreamcatcher sound. Thankfully LEEZ's new agency seem keen on debuting some new groups, and maybe LEEZ can guide their sound. At least the agency has Dong Woo of Infinite. I am trying to grasp at positive straws right here!
Really like Fairytale but nothing can top Starlight as my fav b-side from them this year it seems.
ReplyDeleteStarlight truly remains unmatched for 2022 Dreamcatcher group b-sides!
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