Asian Junkie Asian pop. Without discretion.
“OOTD” and Villains marks the start of a new era for Dreamcatcher, and they’ve perhaps spent the most effort I’ve seen yet in building up their lore and their visual concept. That’s always a solid foundation to start with as it shows the group and company are probably in a healthy state, though I wish the same care was given to their new single.
The worst thing I can say about this is it doesn’t feel a lot like Dreamcatcher, and at times it feels like they’re covering a recent-gen boy group song. Even if elements in their other songs were problematic, usually they could be bailed out by an addictive guitar rift or a pounding EDM element or (usually) a soaring, multi-layered chorus with a catchy refrain. “OOTD”, on the other hand, is somewhat of a jumbled mess that peaks with the first verse, and even on repeats it takes some time to locate the chorus because it’s so laid-back and flat. The vocal runs in the pre-chorus try to redeem it somewhat, but not much else works, including the relatively muted quasi-punk rock elements it attempts to infuse.
Dreamcatcher’s singles have varied a bit in quality over the years — and for me, it’s mostly been from elite to good — but “OOTD” marks their debut into the ‘won’t seek out and will skip’ section of my mind. On the plus side, the music video is beautiful and the girls themselves have arguably never looked better. It’s just a shame that they weren’t able to pair them with a quality song to match. That said, I guess it’s fine if I just pretend “Rising“ was the title track and this was a mid b-side.
