Asian Junkie Asian pop. Without discretion.
Dreamcatcher have sort of been hovering around, lurking in Japan and waiting for a chance to get on an anime OST, and with “Eclipse” they got one through their ‘King’s Raid‘ connection. Not exactly a marquee tie-in, but it perhaps provides hopes for more, and if so then a chance to provide a song with more of their own stamp than “Eclipse” is able to.
While I wasn’t aware they would actually be releasing a music video for this song, my general neutrality about this effort from before remains. Obviously everybody reading this likely knows Dreamcatcher are my favorite K-pop group, and that’s due to their music, though not necessarily due to releases like “Eclipse”.
The verses actually provide the best content, keeping things rolling along, highlighting the top-notch backing, and providing intriguing contrast. It flows absolutely seamlessly as one would expect from a theme, and there’s no complaints with the performance of the girls, as usual.
That said, as punchy and uplifting as the chorus is, especially by their standards it’s just kinda there. While the criticism of any of their songs sounding like an anime OST usually doesn’t faze me — because, let’s be honest, most relevant anime OSTs are in fact better than most K-pop releases, so … sick own, I guess — the ambition of this definitely falls on the generic side of things like their fusion has been watered down and the usual climax or melodic run has been neutered. Compare this with something like “Break The Wall“, which is in the same anime OST mode but maintains the edge and provides a standout, anthemic chorus with a peak.
Relatively speaking, this review is probably more critical than “Eclipse” deserves through comparisons to Dreamcatcher’s own discography, but for me they’re beyond the point of deserving praise for above-average releases. I’m not all that worried about how this will impact perceptions of them in Japan, but I’m also not sure something so comparatively sterile will win over audiences there either.
