Dystopia: Lose Myself (Dreamcatcher, 2020): Mixed Bag Led by Strong Lead [ALBUM REVIEW]
South Korean girl group Dreamcatcher present themselves unlike any others. In a market saturated by cute, girl crush, and edgy concepts, Dreamcatcher stand out as a girl group carrying dark fantasy concepts dwelled in the sounds of the underground and the gothic. With strong vocals and complex sound production from Ollounder and LEEZ, Dreamcatcher successfully draw sounds from genres seldom seen in girl group songs and expanding the limit on what a South Korean girl group are capable of.
Their creativity reaches one of its peaks with their first full album Dystopia: The Tree of Language back in February 2020. Their first full album is one of the best girl group albums of 2020, with strong musical and thematic continuity in-between songs coupled by exciting exploration of genres. So when it was announced that a mini-album were to come on August 2020, expectations were very high. And when the mini-album, titled Dystopia: Lose Myself, came out, the final form is best described as mixed bag led by a strong lead single.
The mentioned lead single, “BOCA”, is one of the most interesting single even when compared to the whole songs in their previous album. “BOCA” sonically draws moombahton with patterns similar to Major Lazer’s Indian-tinged “Lean On”, yet this inspiration is only used as the bare backbone of the song. Heavily infused with gothic melodies and topped with metal-inspired guitar acts and cryptic lyrics, “BOCA” creates a complex twist of the mainstream moombahton genre. The result is a song with enough mysteries and darkness to captivate mainstream and niche audience.
“Break the Wall” readily enters the stage after “BOCA” with a bang, opting for simple metal composition which showcases strong vocals from the members. While not as sonically complex compared to “BOCA”, “Break the Wall” manages to impress by its sheer decision to insert full-on metal genre to a South Korean girl group, something already unique on its own. Member Dami also draws an applause here as one of the songwriters for this song.
The rest of the mini-album is not as exciting as the first two. “Can’t Get You Out of My Mind” is a bland homage to EDM during 2010s, while “Dear” is an emotionally inert ballad — although it is worth of an appreciation for member JiU who dabbled in her first songwriting foray here. Another problem is the mini-album format of Dystopia: Lose Myself, which limits the number of songs, which in itself wasted on “Intro” and “BOCA — Instrumental”. This creates a highly jarring musical flow from the unique and energetic “BOCA” and “Break the Wall” to the problematic two songs after.
Although not a strong follow-up to Dystopia: Lose Myself, Dreamcatcher still can be appreciated for stretching their own limits. “BOCA” is especially worthy as a direct follow-up to lead single of the last album “Scream”. All in all, it is still interesting to see where can Dreamcatcher lead its listeners.
