Song Review:: Catch the Young: 넌 언제나 (You, Always) (2025)

• Release date: 2025 January 22

• Album tracklist: 넌 언제나 (2025), 넌 언제나 (2025) (Instrumental)

• Album runtime: 8 minutes

 I genuinely feel like a proud older sister or a proud older cousin every time this band does literally anything. Ridiculous? Probably. The oldest one is a yearling with my cousin who I'm pretty close with, so I'm sure that's part of it. But they've put out two mini albums, a single, and now a digital single in the last almost fifteen months since they debuted. So proud of them. Also, a four minute song? Did I mention I love them? Their fandom name, by the way, is Catcher, which is a little cute considering what the name of the band is. And because the song is fully in Korean, I made sure to keep the Korean title there. 

And good news for me, this has the instrumental with it. You, Always does have just about everything I like. It's got big bursts of sheer drama and a screaming electric guitar. It's got soft spots to sentimentalize that guitar, but also to just gently pat the listener. I wouldn't necessarily say that the song has a tempo change, but the rhythm certainly shifts in places to interrupt the lulling the song occasionally finds itself in, which I definitely appreciate. Also, that opening vocalization? Considered part of the instrumentals.

The way the vocals to You, Always are layered and the melody itself sound a lot like a first gen song, which immediately raises my suspicion that this might actually be a remake of something, especially given that year tag. I learned what that means from B.D.U remaking Must Have Love. So, one quick dig later, and my ears are correct. This is a remake of Mono's You, Always from 1993. I'm both pleased by this and the fact that they did remake a song from the 90s. This is such a gloriously sentimental sounding song, and they do an incredible job of carrying that 90s grip into a modern song. I don't know what the original sounds like. I'm going to do that in a moment so I can better review this. But honestly? If I didn't know exactly what day Catch the Young debuted, I'd think this version of the song had been released in the mix with Shinhwa and H.O.T. Flex those vocals, my boys. Flex. Oh, it's so pretty.

They turned this super sentimental song into something less New Wave and more just soft rock ballad, with the emphasis on rock. Also, I found out that TVXQ! apparently covered this song at some point, and after I finish this review, I will listen to it because I've decided I just really like this song.

They did an incredible job of blending the retro with the modern, which is exemplified by the polaroid and the wireless headphones. I know polaroid cameras are coming back in popularity, but the point still stands. Also, not going to lie, I'm kind of jealous of the people who got to hear this performed live last week at their solo concert. Oh, the sentiment in this music video. It's beautiful. I suppose them playing their instruments is the equivalent of choreography in an idol group, so I should have the same mild irritation with the lack of a strong narrative, but at least there is a little bit of one, rather than just focusing on the pretty band members. Like I said, sentimental. Also, flexing the guitar playing and the video lingering on the keyboardist as he finishes the song.