Dreamcatcher’s Second Full Album Is Cause To Get More Excited Than Usual
K-Pop — Opinions
The seven-member K-Pop group’s second foray into full album territory should generate more hype than a normal release for many good reasons.
As Dreamcatcher’s reported early April 2022 comeback creeps ever closer, I thought it would be a good idea to drop in a few reminders as to why this particular release, the group’s second full album, is reason to get even more excited than usual. Comebacks as a whole in K-Pop are fun and exciting times for fans of a group — the ramp-up to an album release along with all the promotions that come with it are good enough on their own, but full album releases definitely hit different for a variety of reasons.
Dreamcatcher’s first full album release back in February 2020, “Dystopia: The Tree of Language”, was a milestone in the group’s history, due to a variety of factors both general to the K-Pop industry and specific to the group. So as we await news of their latest album, here’s a few thoughts as to why Dreamcatcher’s second full album should generate a bit more anticipation than normal.
Full albums typically have room to contain a wider variety of songs.
Because full albums are usually expected to have seven to eight tracks or more, the chances of seeing a bit more of a variety of songs is much higher. While a group’s core sound is certain to be present on a full album, there is a bit more room for experimentation and a different musical color from the group overall, leading to B-sides that garner as much or sometimes even more popularity than the group’s title track.
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Dreamcatcher’s “Dystopia: The Tree of Language” was no exception to this rule. The thirteen-track release delighted fans because of the length and breadth of musical range. We had pure rock (“Tension”), trap (“Red Sun”), funk (“Black or White”), lounge/jazz-influenced (“Jazz Bar”) and more. Additionally, it’s fairly common with K-Pop full album releases to get some previously-heard tracks as well, and 2018 fan song “Full Moon” and Siyeon’s at-the-time just released solo debut track “Paradise” rounded out an already-solid album. Combine that with the fact that Dreamcatcher and their producers added their own unique flavor or hybridized their rock core with these tracks, and it’ll be interesting to hear what we get this time around.
I’ve speculated that we might get a couple of the Dystopia series title tracks re-recorded with Handong’s parts (as she was in China during the original promotion period), but the potential for new musical types, sub-unit songs, and more feels pretty high, and is cause for excitement. This brings me to the next reason for getting excited about this next full album.
Full albums have a high chance of being promoted longer-than-usual or with a wider range of performed songs.
Because of the range of full album songs, groups will typically want to either extend promotions for longer than the usual two to three week period, or have the same promotional period but showcase more than the title and a selected B-side. After all, part of the point of K-Pop album promotions is to show off the group’s range as well as their performance/musical presence for their title track.
While perhaps unplanned due to the COVID-19 pandemic ramp-up that cancelled their Japanese promotions for 2020 track “Endless Night”, Dreamcatcher nevertheless took the opportunity to extend promotions of their first full album, going from rock/EDM hybrid title track “Scream” to rock/funk hybrid track “Black or White”, featuring a new round of performances and variety show appearances. Fans were treated to a couple more weeks of stages and for Dreamcatcher to show off another style of song for their first full album release, increasing visibility for their music.
But even were the promotion period for “Dystopia: The Tree of Language” to have remained the length of promotions for “Scream”, Dreamcatcher was already highlighting plenty of songs from their full album as it is. “Scream”, “Red Sun”, and “Sahara” all saw official content attached to them, and the different musical styles of each song, along with “Black or White”, managed to captivate the attention of many new fans and delight already existing ones. Having the room of a full album to be able to present such diversity in performance and promotion really put Dreamcatcher on the map. Speaking of which…
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Dreamcatcher’s last full album, “Dystopia: The Tree of Language”, was a milestone for the group, on a variety of levels.
Dreamcatcher was already turning a corner with the attention that their first special mini album, 2019’s “Raid of Dream”, was getting. But it was their first full album that arguably got them more attention than they had ever previously gotten. Between the variety of tracks, the move towards a hybridized rock sound that combined other recognizable genres (with “Scream”’s EDM being the first), and promoting alongside hugely popular groups such as IZ*ONE and BTS, Dreamcatcher’s first full album ended up being a marker for the beginning of a rise in awareness and fandom that persists into today. For example, even though their 1st music show win continued to elude them, their first-time nominations to win more popular shows such as Show Champion and M! Countdown were achievements in and of themselves, a testament to the group’s and album’s popularity.
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Sales-wise, Dreamcatcher broke plenty of their own prior records, with Hanteo reporting a 170 percent growth in initial sales (with 25,000) from the last comeback and a Gaon total of nearly 60,000 when all was said and done. Well-known publications such as TIME and South China Morning Post cited “Dystopia: The Tree of Language” among some of the top K-Pop albums of 2020, and the group even managed to compete in a Seoul Music Awards category via fan vote. And that’s excluding the fact that Dreamcatcher’s discography expanded by leaps and bounds with a full album release, allowing fans to enjoy the tracks as performed live in multiple online concerts. Any way you slice it, Dreamcatcher’s last full album release was important to the group’s growth both from a music, exposure, and sales perspective, and one would hope that this next upcoming full album release will be just as successful, if not more so.
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Dreamcatcher’s second full album release is highly like to coincide with the beginning of a new story arc as part of their unique world-building musical style.
One of the factors for Dreamcatcher’s next full album release seeing that aforementioned success will be something that fans have come to know as one of the group’s trademarks, and that is in building stories and worlds to accompany their dark, hard-hitting concept. The group’s last full album release transitioned the story arc from their initial “Nightmares” world, where each of them embodied a different nightmare they were cursed with, to a new “Dystopia” world/story where a spiritual Tree of Language is corrupted by the world’s hatred, causing Dreamcatcher, as its guardian spirits, to confront the source of that hatred in the world. Creating stories and worlds to chain their musical releases together has ever been a part of Dreamcatcher’s appeal as a group, and speculation will be rampant, if it hasn’t already, about what they’ll be putting out there this time.
Long-time readers of mine will know that I wrote extensively on what I believe Dreamcatcher’s story and message against hatred was for the Dystopia arc (when you have an hour to spare, you can check my analysis out for “Scream” and “BOCA” and then for the conclusion in “Odd Eye”) so it’s no surprise that I am really looking forward to what tale Dreamcatcher plans to tell and weave into their darker concept for this upcoming full album release. Having the space to work within a full album’s worth of songs means that there are so many possibilities (I’ve seen everything from dark fantasy magic to vampiric femme fatales to thieves/rogues) and their brief foray into circus horror during 2021’s second special mini album release “Summer Holiday” shows they have great range to perform, sing, and write a great plotline into their music. It’s probably one of the most interesting things I look forward to when it comes to Dreamcatcher releases, and knowing that we are highly likely to be starting something new story-wise just makes it that much more of anticipation for me personally.
Hopefully, all these reasons have served to whet your appetite for the full album release to come in early April. I know I’m really looking forward to seeing what new songs, genres, and story we’ll get to see from Dreamcatcher, as well as all the performances and promotion activities to come. You know I’ll be here to report on all of the Dreamcatcher goings-on, so feel free to clap, subscribe, and signal boost this and all my other articles if you’re so inclined and like what you’re reading. See you here next week!
