ONEWE Lands Among the Stars in Second Full Album
Approaching their tenth anniversary, RBW Entertainment’s K-Rock band ONEWE returns with self-produced full-length album WE: Dream Chaser.
Five-member K-Rock band ONEWE returns with their second full-length album WE: Dream Chaser, a remarkable musical foray across the universe. The five-member band, consisting of members Yonghoon (leader, vocals, guitar, keyboard), Harin (drums), Kanghyun (guitar), Dongmyeong (vocals, keyboard), and Giuk (rap, bass, synth), officially debuted under RBW Entertainment as the label’s first ever K-Rock band in 2019. However, ONEWE’s roots go back much further, originally forming in 2015 under the name M.A.S.0094. In this sense, WE: Dream Chaser is not only a triumphant return for the group, the band’s first full-length album since members Yonghoon and Kanghyun’s hiatus for military service, it is also a fitting musical dedication to ONEWE’s now ten years of shining together. Fully written and composed by all five of the members, in WE: Dream Chaser, the band paints the stars.
TRACKLIST
Alice
The Starry Night (TITLE)
EVILDOER
Traffic Love
Coincidence
Endless
Rise Again
Dreamcatcher
All the things I love
Indelible
Sole Star
ONEWE’s distinct charm, from ballads to bangers, is the magic woven in each verse and measure. The members are masters of blending top-notch instrumentals with imaginative lyrics that carry a story and soul. Songs are set in space, or another galaxy, with a poetic introspectiveness to each line, literary or ephemeral. Their discography features the tug of gravitational force, the musings of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s Little Prince on his lonely planet, and a song set at the end of the world as an asteroid strikes Earth. Their fans, WEVE, carry an astronaut-shaped lightstick. ONEWE does not miss an opportunity to sing about space.
All that to say is that the title track “The Starry Night” does not deviate from ONEWE’s galactic origins. Named after Van Gogh’s household masterpiece and composed by Kanghyun, the song features upbeat, lifting guitar and synths that race in tandem with Yonghoon’s rich vocals. It’s synesthetic to its painted namesake, capturing the feeling of swirling through the sky, colors bleeding and running to a yet unforeseen finish line. It’s triumphant, while yearning. The lyrics sing of racing, of fairy tales, of hugging the stars, of the passage of time. It’s a celebration of ten years together, with that poetic nod to a grander, brighter sun on the horizon. And the cool guitar solo. We can’t forget the guitar solo.
To nitpick, the challenge with “The Starry Night” is that it’s prettily packaged, perfectly ONEWE, in a neatly tied bow. It is precisely what one familiar with their discography would expect when clicking on the album and pressing play. On one hand, there’s no better candidate to frontman your tenth anniversary album. But, its B-side siblings, which explore grittier, layered, and clever approaches to the band’s ten-years-in-the-making of a sound, bring more to the table (or, to the cosmos, to stick with a space metaphor).
My four standouts on WE: Dream Chaser are:
1. “Dreamcatcher”
“Dreamcatcher” pelts you with shooting stars. The beat doesn’t lay-up, pulsing with a “midnight at a club” beat in its unceasingness. It’s a song of a frantic lovesickness, singing of running through the streets in midsummer looking for a love that’s just out of reach. Harin’s sharp percussive drum beats with Giuk’s low, chasing rap build into a roundhouse-kick of a chorus that falls in and over itself, all-consuming. It’s the standout track on WE: Dream Chaser.
2. “Alice”
Opening the album with a muddy spill down the rabbit hole, “Alice” is a sadistic take on Alice in Wonderland. The lyrics stagger through the nightmare that is Wonderland, gruffly yelling into the void, “Where is my Alice?” Composed by Kanghyun (resident bookworm of the group), “Alice” goes dark, with sharp riffs and the classic rock n’ roll edginess that’s sometimes difficult to come by in K-Rock. There’s angst; there’s shredding. It speaks to the inner emo.
3. “Traffic Love”
A catchy song with J-Rock elements is always a hit, and “Traffic Love” has just that, with its harmonic, jazzy chords, a super speed bass line, and rhythmic skips. Car horn sound effects and a shouty pre-chorus add sonic flair to a punchy, anime-esque track. “Traffic Love” is bragging to the world, “do you want to see some technical chops?” (P.S. This one also has a sick guitar solo.)
4. “EVILDOER”
“EVILDOER” (or the literal Korean title of “[the] Villain Waits for the Hero’s Transformation”) is deviant. It plays its cards, plucking strings with the playful menace of an anime villain. The draw of “EVILDOER” isn’t the powerful lull of some nightmarish big-bad horror, rather, it’s the cinematic whimsy of an old-fashioned hero-villain showdown. There’s a trill of “Für Elise” thrown in the riffs, because, why not? Giuk raps a crooning monologue, “yo, yo are you still not done transforming bro?” It’s goofy, trickster-y fun.
The remaining B-sides orbit around “The Starry Night” with softer tracks and the oft-familiar legato ballads that ONEWE calls their own, softening WE: Dream Chaser’s edges out. Ballad “Coincidence” meanders its way over and under itself, happening upon its own cleverly coincidental ending in a way that makes one pause and check, “Did I accidentally skip the rest of the song?” Acoustic “Endless” pairs Dongmyeong and Yonghoon’s crooning velvety vocals with light, gentle finger-plucking on the guitar. “Rise Again” truly does rise to meet the cinematic grandeur set up by “The Starry Night”. Soft piano track “All the things I love” is a coffee-shop easy-listen, while “Indelible” is the soaring ballad vocal showstopper of the album. Closing song “Sole Star” circles the album back to the sense of wonder at the universe that ONEWE is best known for.
As the group looks ahead to their tenth anniversary and their first upcoming world tour, which kicks off in Vietnam in March, heads to North America through April and May, before concluding in Seoul, WE: Dream Chaser lights the way. It’s a remarkable addition to a great discography, and a rarity of an album for the band. It’s easy to float in space on a giant spinning rock with music like this.
Edited by Joi Berry