Dreamcatcher To Go On “Summer Holiday” After “Useless Discussion” In Mid-July

K-Pop — Dreamcatcher Recall

K-Pop’s Dreamcatcher is confirmed to hit the dusty comeback trail once again this summer as activities in July ramp up.

If we’ve learned anything about Dreamcatcher, it’s that they tend to not like being idle for too long, even between comebacks. We’re usually treated to a bevy of content pretty much all year long, whether it’s Special Clips, Notes, appearances, and more. But when 5–6 months pass, thoughts turn to a potential comeback, and fans have been anxiously waiting for the next time Dreamcatcher is slated to release new music.

Thankfully, the wait ended this week, as we saw the start of the comeback trail that would eventually lead to brand new Dreamcatcher tracks for fans to listen to. The excitement is real, but I’m getting ahead of myself, as comeback news was not the only thing that dropped this week. Let’s take a look at what happened!

This past Tuesday saw the re-branding of SBS Young Street to reflect its brand new permanent DJ host — Red Velvet’s Wendy, along with her new slate of fixed guests, of which Dreamcatcher’s SuA is one. Along with Dickpunks’ Taehyun, it looks like this is likely to be the radio crew for the new “Wendy’s Young Street” on Tuesdays, and this past week’s inaugural episode with them had plenty to get excited about. Wendy and SuA seemed to hit it off right away, to the point that Taehyun commented that they behaved as if they’ve been good friends for a very long time. As always, SuA’s energy was boundless, and she was certainly eager to play off of Wendy’s bright attitude — and get some tips on skincare routines and snacks to eat at the same time. The group traded stories from their past from school, with SuA talking about how she tried a ton of different things (fashion show, dance competitions, etc.) and never slacked off on lessons. If all the laughter and easy exchanges are any indication, we’re off to a great start for Wendy and SuA’s interactions on the show.

On the concert front, Dreamcatcher appeared as part of the lineup for the (now unfortunately named) “2021 Together Again K-Pop Concert”, a gig that was originally meant to have fans in attendance but which moved to online-only in the wake of rising COVID cases in South Korea. Even though there wasn’t an audience to greet them properly, Dreamcatcher used the now-familiar method of talking to fans who were displayed on screens behind them, while also performing both “Odd Eye” and “Scream”. It was nice to see just a bit of the interaction that hopefully will happen in the near future for Dreamcatcher and its fans, and it was nice to see Dreamcatcher take it in stride even with the right decision being made to keep everyone safe. They’ve been pretty good at maintaining a dialogue with fans during the pandemic, and that certainly showed here.

Speaking of dialogue, that was exactly what Dreamcatcher did this past week on the latest episode of Dreamcatcher Mind. Sitting in a formal debate setting and clad in suits (always a popular look with fans), the group took sides on various topics and then proceeded to debate them with each other. The vibe was very much a combination of a parody of any type of televised debate you’d see, and how among friends, random topics discussed in way too much detail happen from time to time.

Here’s the TL;DR of how Dreamcatcher’s “Useless Discussion” episode went:

• Topics debated were choosing between “Being ghosted or witnessing someone moving on right away from a relationship”, “Reliving your happiest moment or changing one of your worst”, and “Pooping in public for 500 million won vs. 10 million won for pooping at home”.
• Yoohyeon began laughing when the 2nd topic was being discussed and told an extreme example of someone pooping on the bus after having a stomach ache, as a way to try to figure out if that would lend credibility to changing one of your worst moments.
• Much chaos was had as Dreamcatcher shouted, argued, and even swore when talking about topics, but they were, of course, quick to point out at the end of the video that it was all in good fun and not serious.

When the pre-episode article went up, I was a just a tiny bit skeptical about how interesting a debate episode would be. After seeing Dreamcatcher do everything from Among Us to Airsoft battles to tug-of-war and more, I wasn’t sure how an episode of mostly talking was going to hold up. But true to form, Dreamcatcher made it highly entertaining. Treating it more like a conversation between friends on random topics, the group threw in a bunch of over-the-top arguments (with JiU letting out some profanity at a certain point), exaggerated examples, and some decently argued points (Dami talking about how it’s better to re-live your happiest moments because you learn from your mistakes was one of the best).

I’m halfway convinced that the third topic about getting paid to poop was done on the fly because of how much of a hole Yoohyeon dug talking about it so much. Not surprisingly this was some of the most entertaining dialogue of the episode, with Yoohyeon denying it was actually her that did it, changing her mind on the third topic, and Handong tying it back to the second topic by putting forth that the memory of being made fun of for it is something you’d want to erase.

I think the combination of having a group that wasn’t afraid to let these topics get ridiculous and a production staff leaning into that was why I found this episode particularly fun. We’ll probably never know how some of those topics truly ended, but of all the episodes with footage on the cutting room floor, I’d love to see more.

But of course, all this news paled in comparison to what dropped late last week — the first official sign of a Dreamcatcher comeback in the form of a trademark Mystery Code, by now a Dreamcatcher standard. We got shown a carousel like you’d find at an amusement park with a number of different elements. We saw quick apparent solutions to this code within half an hour, as eagle-eyed InSomnia picked up on the blue icons on either side being adjusted to form a comeback date (21/07/30) and the roman numeraled letters being matched to the English alphabet to spell “Because” or “Be Cause”.

Mystery Codes are always fun, like many parts of a Dreamcatcher comeback, because they spur a ton of speculation and theorycrafting. Much of it may not pan out as correct, but that isn’t the point — the point is to create a dialogue and hype for the comeback through fans’ imaginations, and in this sense, Mystery Codes have succeeded ever since they started doing them back in 2017.

The week ended with the Comeback Scheduler, showing us what will be coming on what days leading up to Album Release on the July 30th. By now, most veteran InSomnia are familiar with this process, but for those who aren’t, comeback schedules involve a bunch of teasers and media released on weekdays all the way up until release. We usually get individual photos, group photos, a track list, brief look at lyrics and then audio and video teasers. It’s a standard K-Pop way of building hype and buzz among fans for a release, and Dreamcatcher has never disappointed with theirs.

The Scheduler showed us that this is a Special Mini Album (thus outside of the normal world-building album releases and stories they’ve done) — this would be the 2nd, with the Vespa-collaborated 2019 release Raid of Dream the 1st. It also showed us the title of the album — “Summer Holiday” — and the fact that Dreamcatcher members have been teasing/trolling fans with a “cute” concept came rushing back.

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1eF-XWNayw[/embed]

Would Dreamcatcher really deviate from their darker core and do something light and summery cute? Nobody knows, and the only other clue came from a surprise live the group did from the set of Weekly Idol, where they more than likely filmed an episode for this upcoming release. Aside from an interesting gesture with the hands, the MCs talked about how this might be a “creepy horror” vibe in the vein of movie “The Medium”, which elicited a huge reaction from the group about spoiling any more.

I’ve seen everything from talking about pirates to talking about the movie “Us” based on doppelgangers to potentially going back to where the storyline of “PIRI” left off, and more. Some of it might be true, much of it will be proven to be false, but being right or accurate isn’t the point. The point is to create communal buzz and excitement for the comeback, and letting people be hyped for something is never a bad thing. Part of why I’ve been into the group for so long are these dialogues that happen every comeback since I’ve followed them in 2017, and we’re going to see no different here. You love to see it.

[embed]https://www.vlive.tv/video/256335[/embed]

Lastly, it seems we can’t even rely on the members this time around to help out with any spoilers (either intentional or unintentional). Yoohyeon dropped in briefly this past weekend after the Together Again concert to chat with fans, and while she talked about meeting up with members of Weeekly, her dog Pie, and other topics, she dodged plenty of spoiler requests, only stating that the music video filming is finished and that “every comeback is special”. Her and Gahyeon in particular have been half-teasing and trolling fans for the past two months about anything upcoming, so whether or not taking their “cute” concept mentions as fact or blatant misinformation remains to be seen. Either way, fans will find out as the week of teasers unfolds.

One other thing I want to report is that with the comeback inbound, I put together a more compact version of my guide to Dreamcatcher and how to support them. It’s called Dreamcatcher TL;DR and you can find it at the below link:

[embed]https://www.vlive.tv/video/256335[/embed]

In it, you can find out about the group, its members, prior comebacks, social media channels, and more, as well as a short guide to how to choose to support the group during the upcoming album release. Feel free to pass this around — it’s a great little microsite and hopefully it’ll be helpful to people.

We’re officially on the comeback trail now, and that means news is just going to ramp up from here! The hype train is building and I’ll be here to recap all of it as we lead up to more great Dreamcatcher music. Be sure to like, clap, and spread the link around to your fellow fans, and I’ll see you back here in a week!