[Review] Dreamcatcher - Deja Vu

Like Seventeen, Dreamcatcher is making their first song review appearance on this blog and came off a Best Of 2018 placing. Unlike Seventeen however, I have always had my eye on Dreamcatcher (since the rebranding anyway). Their style is unique among the sea of copycat girl groups and they've justly picked up a strong following. "Deja Vu" continues their 2019 campaign after "Piri" and some miscellaneous material like "Over The Sky" and a Japanese promotion.

The basics are as present as ever: the Jrock elements fused with the roster's electric vocals form the backbone of any Dreamcatcher title track. This is of course paired with an appropriate instrumental that always brings the soft, rising, and strong moments together. Every member continues to pull their weight from a vocals perspective, with Siyeon leading the pack but many others putting up excellent performances - more on that later.

Gonna quickly go over the choreography from what I saw in the MV and this one live, but while this group never has the most difficult or hardest-hitting dances, Dreamcatcher always deliver in this category almost as often as they do from the recording booth. I've never ranked groups for their dancing ability (or choreographies themselves), but there doesn't appear to be any weak links like in other girl groups. In the linked performance, I had a love-hate relationship with the extensions on their sleeves. Sometimes it really works like during the bridge and some formation changes, but other times they look like silly birds with not much middle ground.

Handong has a beautiful prechorus. The line "holding this pain" is delivered exquisitely and outside of some high notes is my favorite part of the song. Considering how Siyeon is really the main attraction vocals-wise, it's admirable how well the others do behind her leadership. Handong, SuA, and JiU are all competitive with each other for that secondary vocalist spot. Then Yoohyun had a good showing, too. Dami may not have had a rap this time around, but she still got to shine with her deeper voice. I think fans all get surprised when any girl group member has a lower range than expected, with recent examples being Yuqi and Seolhyun's recent Mamamoo cover via Queendom, so Dami has the ability to be a threat on both sides of the mic. Then she hit us with some falsetto in the second prechorus! We do not deserve. Perhaps we'll get all the holy trinity from Dami in their next release?

Let's talk about the chorus. It's...alright. But I'm not a fan of how repetitive it was. They say "deja vu" many times over the course of the song, and while the pronunciation isn't bad it becomes more noticeable or awkward each subsequent hearing. Perhaps that's exactly the point they're trying to make, instilling a sense of deja vu with how many times they say the word, but I'm not buying it. Siyeon does her best to remedy the boring first half with a Yoohyun assist, though the section gets capped off with another "deja vu" anyway. Usually the chorus is a major source of strength for Dreamcatcher, so unfortunately I have to say I'm disappointed with the one in "Deja Vu."

In the hall of Dreamcatcher greats, I struggle to place "Deja Vu" on the higher regions. We see the usual Dreamcatcher performance with a Dami mixup and a great supporting vocal cast. However the chorus just doesn't cut it for me. Letting the repetition and instrumental take over in the most critical part of the song hurts them despite Siyeon's best efforts. And yes the other members did great vocals-wise but that holds true for many a Dreamcatcher song. Would definitely rank "Deja Vu" behind "Piri" as of right now, and well beyond their other gems like "What" and "Chase Me."