Dream Girl – The Misconceptions of You

Background and release

On February 11, Shinee revealed that the title song "Dream Girl" was produced by Shin Hyuk and his team Joombas Music Factory and described the song as "an acid electro funk song". Several days later the group held the event "Melon Premiere SHINee Music Spoiler" where they revealed six out of the nine songs on the album to 100 music reviewers, as well as a song and a medley of three songs from Why So Serious? – The Misconceptions of Me. Two of the directors for the album also made an appearance to give a basic explanation about the concepts and meanings behind the project.

Director Lee Sung-soo from SM Entertainment's producing department shared information about the songs and their meanings, while Director Min Hee-jin from SM Entertainment's visual and art directing department introduced Shinee's visual concept. Furthermore the choreography for the title song “Dream Girl“ was revealed, which was choreographed by Tony Testa, who previously worked with Shinee on Sherlock. The making of the music video was also shown which showed the members jumping on trampolines and using running machines. Member Onew stated on the making of the two albums, “It’s our first full album that we’re releasing in a while, so we worked really hard. Minho and Key worked on the rapping, Jonghyun worked on the lyrics, and Taemin worked on the choreography." Taemin described the album as one where each member’s individuality shines through their voices, “We know each other best so a lot of our opinions went into this album." Jonghyun in conjunction said, “Taemin’s delivery of the lyrics is good. Minho’s falsetto is really nice these days. Key is good at English. We know each other’s strengths so we split the parts up according to who can shine on what. We had fun working on the album.”

This album is about "my misconception of you", "the misconception of the world wrapped around me", and "the misconception of reality". The lyrics can be interpreted as the dreams, ideals, and visions of the world through Shinee's eyes. It showcases the original Shinee-esque side which everyone is familiar with. In a video interview with Billboard, Shinee said the song titles to Why So Serious? – The Misconceptions of Me were revealed in this album's opening track, "Spoiler." The album was released digitally and physically on February 19, 2013 and distributed by KT Music.

Artwork and concept

At the "Melon Premiere SHINee Music Spoiler" on February 14, director of SM Entertainment's Visual and Art Directing department Min Hee-jin stated on the album artwork, “The album jacket shows the fantasies of the members. It has the members’ own images and the ideal types they look for. Please break your misconceptions and prior judgement you have on Shinee.” While talking about the title track Hee-jin stated the 'Dream Girl' is not simply just a girl. The director described the dream girl as a projection of Shinee: "When we look for ideal types, we usually find someone who is similar to us or completely different from us. So when we search for our dream person, we are actually searching for another side of us." To put it another way, it'd be, "Who is the me that I am looking for?"

In regards to the teaser photos and album she stated, “I tried to include what I’ve gathered from talking to each of the members by putting their thoughts into images. Each of the images has some kind of idea that the members wanted to present to the public. It should be entertaining to try and figure some of those puzzles out. Try not to miss any of the small details. We looked for fresh ideas and images. Instead of working with famous artists and photographers, we worked with up-and-coming talents with new ideas.”

Singles

"Dream Girl" was produced by Hyuk Shin and his team of composers, Joombas Music Factory. They described the song as "an acid electro funk song". It is written by Jun Gandi and composed by Hyuk Shin, Jordan Kyle, Ross Lara, Dave Cook, DK, and Anthony "TC" Crawford. The song has a fuller sound, featuring electric guitars among various other synths and the beat is very diverse and complex with a lot of tempo changes. The song is described as the most "Shinee-like song" in the album and tells about how the five boys meet their dream girl that only appear in their dreams, and disappear in reality. The accompanying music video was filmed in January 2013, with choreography by Tony Testa. The song peaked at number 1 on the Gaon Singles Chart and number 3 on the Korea K-Pop Hot 100. The music video to the single was released on February 19, 2013 and features the members of the group doing unique tricks with mic stands that are noted to be the highlight of the dance routine. It's full of color and modern flair. The music video is the work of Digipedi, a South Korean video production company formed and led by the duo Seong Won-mo and Park Sang-woo.

A Japanese version, written by Hidenori Tanaka and agehasprings, was included as one of the three tracks on their eighth Japanese CD single "Boys Meet U", which was released on August 21, 2013 under the distributing label of EMI Music Japan. Before the release, the version was performed live during their second Japan arena tour Shinee World 2013.

Critical reception

Billboard K-Town columnist Jeff Benjamin wrote that the lead single, "Dream Girl", is a "safe, enjoyable mainstream single" while the album is "a triumph that never lacks in energy and balances nods to 80s pop stars and forward-thinking pop". He said "songs like 'Punch Drunk Love' and 'Aside' sonically recall the sounds of Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie, respectively", while "tracks like 'Beautiful' and 'Runaway' combine unique electronic production elements over sugary boy band harmonies to create year-round pop music".

Track list

Credits adapted from the official homepage.