Album Review: Dreamcatcher UAU Opts For Higher Energy Summer Tunes, Evolving Sound With "Playlist: #Your Youth"

When it comes to K-Pop first comebacks after debut, I've always felt they tend to have a bigger magnifying glass on them than normal. Debut is filled with first-time excitement, mystery about what an act is going to put out, and the highs and memories of being on stage doing the music you've prepared so long to perform. First comebacks are a bit more of a litmus test, a way to gauge if you're keeping fans' interest, an opportunity to build on a foundation of debut tracks, and a way to project confidence in one's own musical style.

Yet I think for Dreamcatcher UAU, who recently dropped their first comeback album with 2nd mini "Playlist: #Your Youth", there were even more factors at play. One of these is being a subunit, which I believe often operate at different scale and metrics as opposed to the main group. Another is dealing with the impression made by presenting a different style of music entirely, often the case with subunits but perhaps most keenly felt with UAU, who've eschewed the dark and often-fantastical setting of the Dreamcatcher story arcs and rock sound for more grounded, real-world, more traditional Western-influenced pop. And there's the fact that they've not been out with new music in over a year - which in the often-frenetic and attention economy-driven K-Pop industry can become a pretty large challenge.

But if there's one thing Dreamcatcher members are used to, it's fighting uphill and battling against adversity and the odds. "Playlist #Your Youth" reflects a sort of higher-energy approach the subunit has taken for their sophomore offering - knowing and seeming to understand it's taken longer than usual to put something new out into the K-Pop ether, they've come back with six tracks rather than four, and have fully embraced summer pop and bops as the way to forge ahead with their more mature-themed and grounded music. Here's what I thought after a few listens on the new album.

"Tuesday"

Now I know I just talked about how this album in general feels more high-energy, but if you listen to this track, you might think I glossed over it when that's not the case at all. Yes, this is a bit of a slow R&B-type track, but energy can be communicated in the beat and musical style even if it isn't fast on the metronome.

The song, per the group's explanation, is a track talking about how "Tuesday" (unlike Monday, the first workday of the week and a time to focus after the weekend) is a day to let your mind drift just a little, especially if you have someone special in mind that you might meet up with later. It's got a kind of boldness to it, both in how it's sung and in the theme of the lyrics, which is why I still think it fits the theme of this album being a bit higher energy despite the slower tempo. And even as a slowjam, it's got a hook in the chorus that keeps my attention, especially when it shifts tone in the bridge (which, by the way, are all welcome returns to many of the tracks and a departure away from the shorter-song-streaming-friendly trend that's made its way into K-Pop recently).

"Stand By Me"

If "Tuesday" is the honeymoon of a relationship, where you find yourself thinking about someone you're seeing, and last album's "2 Months" is attempting to ensure that both of you are on the same page when it comes to the pace of the relationship, "Stand By Me" is the realization that this isn't working out and it's time to find an exit, even if the feeling is mutual.

There's a kind of irony in the title of this song - I really thought from the title it would be a heartfully romantic, but it's entirely the opposite, as all the words surrounding the titular lyrics are asking to not "Stand By Me" and not to bother stopping during the inevitable goodbye that's coming. I also have a distinct weakness for synth and electro-pop, so this is easily one of, if not my favorite B-side of this album.

Part of that is the backing track syncing up pretty nicely with the melody during the chorus, which is immediately memorable and easy to groove to. Combine that with the idea of the verses being more low-key emotional about how UAU feels about how the relationship has soured, and you get a song that lyrically understands the heaviness associated with a breakup, yet is elated and energetic at the prospect of moving on and making that decision to be free. Probably not so great for the target of UAU's "it's not me, it's you" song, but just fine for those of us who want a repeatable track in our K-Pop playlists.

"Cause I Wanna Feel Your Face"

As I said, I have a soft spot for synth, and this track is full of it, along with a kind of dreamy, floating atmosphere in the background that makes it relaxing. There's energy here too, but it's mostly resides where the background instrumentation and lyrics in the verses live. I feel like this song sort of brings the score down a bitfor me in the pre-chorus and especially the chorus. If I have a bias towards synth, I have one strictly against over-repetition of words in a place where I feel a song should be strongest and establish its own identity.

As it is, the chorus's constant repeating of the title comes off as humorously strange rather than endearing. I think I know what they were going for here - a kind of earworm in the chorus that would stick with people, but I think there's only so much you can say you want to feel someone's face before you gotta move on to something else that you like about them. The verses try to do that valiantly and are pretty descriptive, but they just can't do the heavy lifting needed to offset the chorus repetition that feels a little like it's filling the length of the song too much. I think having something here that showed off the vocal talent we know JiU, SuA, and Yoohyeon have would have been better, or even including some kind of backing vocal that created some depth to the chorus. It reminded me of the chorus pattern of "2 Months", something that I think contributed to me ranking it below the B-sides of the debut album - but maybe this works for someone else, and that's fine by me.

"Echo"

Back in my younger days, I was a dance club and bar hopper when it came to the weekends or nights when I knew I didn't have work the next day, and there were many an establishment I'd close with friends. Those days are far behind me, but electro-pop and club tunes are still tracks that are in my musical blood, and there are a few that still sneak onto my playlists.

"Echo" is one of those tunes for sure. I've heard criticisms that this is kind of all over the place musically, and it's a bit difficult to hear the lyrics. I can see that, as the distortion in the production and singing makes it tough to make them out (and this is one of the tracks with more Korean in it than the others, which doesn't help folks who don't know the language).

Yet in an album that has some pretty clear lyrical things you're supposed to pay attention to, having a track that's just a fun dance track that focuses more on the music than the words isn't the worst thing in the world. It very much gives off the summer night in a bar vibe, something that's mixed together with a couple other similarly catchy tracks in a 15-20 minute period on the dance floor. It could stand to be just a bit longer, but I'll take 2:54 in a sub 3-minute K-Pop world any day.

"Comma 9999"

This track seems to be in a hurry to not overstay its welcome (I believe at 2:27, it's the shortest on the album), so it's probably a good choice to bookend the album rather than a slow-ish standard ballad type song. The tracks on the second half of the album apparently were all candidate demos for UAU's debut album, so it makes sense that this track in particular seems short-ish.

It makes a good impression on me for however long it's around, especially with the electronic tweaks on a fast-paced song, but I really feel like there should have been more meat on the bone here. A bridge, a bit more time to build to the high-energy parts of the song, and I think it would feel better to me. But even the singing from UAU seems a bit too rushed for me, as if they were trying to fit the verses into the short timeline, and it doesn't help that the last twenty seconds are essentially UAU-free unless the electronic synth-y vocals were actually them, tweaked to a level that distorted them. Thin tracks are for later-generation groups more concerned about catchiness than depth, not for a vocally talented group like UAU.

"GENE" (Title Track)

Admittedly, I wasn't quite sure at first about this track, especially with it being the title track, when listening to it from the Highlight Medley. They gave us a small bit of the chorus, and its repetition made me feel like we were going the same route as "Cause I Wanna Feel Your Face". But of course if I've learned something over the years of Dreamcatcher teasers, it's that the highlights and small pieces are rarely like the final product when it comes to title tracks, and "GENE" is no exception.

I tend to judge title tracks as the whole package - MV, song, and choreography, and this is one of those tracks that is even better than the song on its own when you combine all three. The song has much more depth and volume to it (especially when listening on Spotify, or anyplace that is not compressed on YouTube), and that's because it's electronic dance pop with a dash of house to it. Even were I not already biased towards this due to my aforementioned youthful late-night life, I'd like it just for this. It's the perfect song to release for summer, both lyrically and musically, a reminder of days when you feel invincible and one-of-a-kind in your youth, which is appropriately on-brand for the album.

We've only seen a single performance so far, but the choreography's high energy, constant movement, even during the emptier moments from a background music standpoint, is definitely one of those routines that will inspire fans to raise their hands and wave them around in excitement. It's the kind of get up and go track that I felt was missing from the debut album, and this evolution of their core pop sound is a worthy entry that improves on that while establishing what they are meant to be, concept-wise.

Yet throw in the MV with the song and the choreography, and you get a dash of that old Dreamcatcher horror/sci-fi story that many fans remember with fondness. There were questions about an obviously fake beach set and at least one other character besides UAU and their dancers from the teaser, but they were all explained with a plotline that showed all the extras on the beach slowly burning up feverishly and fainting from heat exhaustion, seemingly from how nuclear-hot UAU was. The last bits of the video show that the subunit is actually kept in a containment area and under observation, whether from being a danger due to their temperature-rising powers or another reason is unknown. But for those of us, like me, who enjoyed all the lore over the years, this was a nice touch, and I think they should include more of it, even if it seems other characters in the universe don't fare as well as a consequence.

"GENE" is a fairly solid title track choice, and it highlights a peppier UAU who is seeking to make at least a decent splash with their version of a summer bop. The competition is fiercer, the realities of a thinner economy for fans to spend are ever-present, and ensuring stability while dealing with the challenges of being a subunit are real. There's been a bit of discourse I've read and participated in over the past few weeks as the UAU comeback has come together - questions about the long break (seemingly related in part to production time), speculations and (sometimes extreme to the point of inappropriate) assumptions about the state of Dreamcatcher Company, reflections on a fanbase that appears to be a bit smaller for various reasons, not the least of which, I'd speculate, is the idea that anything not full Dreamcatcher or in the Dreamcatcher music style is not vibing with some fans, and more. Some of this has even gotten to the ears of the group, with predictable results that should give fans pause about how and in what way they're communicating feedback.

Yet you can see in this mini album, and in all the things everyone in Dreamcatcher has done over the past year, the kind of enjoyment and investment they have had in their various undertakings in the post-exclusive contract era. As such, I think that no matter what happens, I would rather UAU, and the rest of Dreamcatcher, keep doing what makes them happy. There's a sense of summer fun that UAU is introducing with "GENE" and the rest of "Playlist: #Your Youth", and that kind of contentment and joy should be supported. Definitely give it a listen if you haven't!