Greatest Hits:: woo!ah!: Catch the Stars

 I waffled back an forth on what song I wanted to do here a lot. I thought I'd made a decision, and then I decided against it. Then I'd made another decision, and decided against it. Then, I went back to my original thought, and here we are. I have, like, three songs that I keep circling that I want to talk about, but that also means putting them in a spot where they support the songs to either side (in this case BTOB and Stray Kids) and also stand out well on their own. I feel for the people who decide the order to put songs in an album or for a setlist. It's not easy. And I know that the group recently-ish had a bit of negative attention, but if anything, that painted the company in a worse light than the group members, and this isn't the first time that a group under that company has had issues with mistreatment. 

woo!ah! debuted as a six member group under NV Entertainment (now H Entertainment and also formerly SSQ Entertainment) in 2020. They are currently a five member group, and haven't had a comeback in about a year, which is concerning.

Catch the Stars was woo!ah!'s first digital single, later included in their first mini album. I'm tagging this as a Greatest Hits post as opposed to a Battle of the B-Sides post because there's about five months between this and the mini album, and it's not included as part of the comeback schedule for the mini album. This is why I'm fine with songs not being tagged correctly when they're submitted; I do my research on the songs to figure out where they should go. Anyway, the only person on the lyricist list that's not on the composer list is MRCH (TWICE, fromis_9, ITZY, NiziU, Kim Sejeong, Yena, Yerin, JR (!!!), JinJin, and her own songs). The non-lyricist composers are collapsedone (DAY6, TWICE, Stray Kids, JJ Project, Xdinary Heroes, NMIXX, HA:TFELT, fromis_9, RIIZE, ITZY, ZEROBASEONE, GOT7, i-dle, GSoul, 2AM, N.Flying, ChenBilllie, JJ Project, MRCH, VIXX, Jamie, Apink, GFRIEND, Wonder Girls, GWSN, Shinhwa, JO1, BESTie, and miss A), Lee Haesol (ITZY, TWICE, Xdinary Heroes, NMIXX, Stray Kids, VCHA, fromis_9, J. Y. Park, NiziU, KickFlip, NEXZ, EVNNE, BOY STORY, STAYC, 2PM, Golden Girls, H1-KEY, LIGHTSUM, TAN, and JD1), Justin Reinstein (TWICE, ITZY, GFRIEND, Stray Kids, LE SSERAFIM, NMIXX, EXO, The Boyz, ENHYPEN, Red Velvet, Kep1er, IVE, RIIZE, ZEROBASEONE, NiziU, MISAMO, Loossemble, CNBLUE, N.Flying, cignature, Billlie, SF9, Victon, Ailee, VIXX, Rocket Punch, GWSN, Apink, Moonbyul, HOT ISSUE, Queenz Eye, Super Junior, JO1, ONF, Weki Meki, and April), and Anna Timgren (TWICE, Chung Ha, NMIXX, LOONA, VIVIZ, Enhypen, HyunA, OH MY GIRL, Kep1er, IVE, GFRIEND, fromis_9, LOONA, IZ*ONE, aespa, CLC, tripleS, CLASS:y, NiziU, Weki Meki, Billlie, HOT ISSUE, ME:I, Loossemble, EVERGLOW, NiziU, cignature, OH MY GIRL, BVNDIT, VVUP, Victon, H1-KEY, Weeekly, MAJORS, DreamNote, Rocket Punch, bugAboo, and NATURE).

• Group: woo!ah!
• Debut Date: 2020 May 13
• Company: SSQ Entertainment
• Status: Active
• Album: Catch the Stars
• Song: Catch the Stars
• Release Date: 2022 January 04

I love it when songs say the name of the group as part of the lyrics. It's genuinely one of my favorite things that shows up in songs, and I love it when groups consistently have that as a thing. I can think of a couple of groups that do that and it makes me smile every time that I hear it. 

The good news is that this is also a very bright song to match the beginning of spring, even if it wasn't spring when the song was released. Happy spring, everyone! Have some joy and brightness to your life!

Actually, this feels kind of like a sister song to Rollin' by Brave Girls, so I'm glad to have another song of that variety to help break up the recent heavier emotions. Take a breath, and let's go!

The acting at :36 makes me smile every time I watched this music video while trying to figure out where I wanted to go with this song. That is wide-eyed wonder, and I love to see it. Whichever one is the member in the spaceship, she does such a good job with being completely heartwarming. There are a lot of different spots where I'm looking at the members going "You are adorable" (:46, 1:00, 1:22, 1:29, 2:11, 2:57,). It's pure imagination, and I love that because it's also so vibrant in color, and also exactly what a lot of people do during school.

There are also parts where I, the millennial, wince because what do you mean you're going to be pulling on the VHS tape like that? I know it's not real, but it still kind of hurts me. I have Jurassic Park on VHS that still works, as does my VCR. That thing is the same age as Suga and Peniel and Aron and Taemin. The millennial in me is crying, and that makes me laugh because it's literally in that member's imagination and that won't hurt the tapes if she doesn't imagine it hurting the tapes, but still. Still! 

And I love the E.T reference. I remember that being my older sister's favorite movie. I don't know if that's actually true or not, but that's what I remember, so every time I see a reference to it, I think of her.

We've got a full-group chorus, or at least close enough to it that the ad-libs aren't just one of two sounds, but one of a few and it really enriches the song, gives it a big, full sound, and you know how much I love those, especially in a song as bright as this because it makes it makes it the perfect festival or encore-of-a-concert song. Or even that section of a concert where you get all the bright, fun songs. It's the kind of song that has choreography, but doesn't need the choreography performed to hype up the fans.

I'm also going to give a specific shout-out to the YouTube channel Chingu Amiga, because judging by the comments on the music video, a lot of them were brought to this song because of the channel. I did send it to one of my friends from Mexico because his level of Spanish is (as expected) much higher than mine is, but he's gotten a little interested in K-Pop recently, so this was actually an unexpected boon for both of us. 

As per usual, I'm starting off with Music Bank because that's where we get the names attached to the lyrics. 

It sounds a little bit like this may have been at least partially live because there are a couple of spots where it sounds a little like their vocals might be clashing a little with the backtrack, and I am so excited to be hearing that. They're all wearing shirts almost up to their chins so I can't verify it by staring at their necks like a sparkly vampire, but I'm currently tentatively willing to say that about the performance. Especially because, if you listen to Nana's part starting at 2:37, you hear a double voice, then one voice while her mouth is still moving, and then two voices again. That's a classic choir trick and one of the first ones I learned: if you need to take a breath, pretend to be singing and then come back in quietly in a crescendo up to the correct dynamic level.

Also, I love their outfits here. They definitely remind me of a private school uniform, specifically the one from a book series I read when I was younger, the Gallagher Girls series (basically it was a preparatory spy school for teenaged girls and I was delighted by it; I do recommend them if you or someone you know is in the market for YA novels that's still suitable for the younger end of that age group). That just means that the stylists did their jobs well, if I immediately got both the concept and connected it to something else.

The outfits here remind me of something Cher would have worn on Clueless.

I actually really like this stage and, bonus, the camerawork doesn't seem to be total garbage, so well-done, Inkigayo!

And parts of the choreography that I'm very excited to talk about later are highlighted here because of the camerawork. I also really like the little hair flip at 1:40. It's so cute. 

A recent performance! Well, a relatively recent performance! 2024 was two years ago! And this was for KCON Japan, which kind of has been a treasure trove for these posts. Again, I love the costuming. The boots with the fur (with the fur!) and tall socks is a stylistic voice that I love seeing. I feel like that may have been a style when I was younger, so I'm kind of happy that it's coming back, at least a little.

This really is such a pretty song. There is a very short part from 2:06-2:09 where I just really love that part of the song. It's bright and cheerful and pretty and, as I said earlier, perfect for the end of a concert. Or, in this case, I think to close out their KCON Stage set. 

And I found a live vocals video! This one came from Arirang Radio (I love how much they give attention to smaller groups) and it definitely does sound live. Which I appreciate that they don't seem to be lying to us on that matter.

We also get my absolute favorite thing with these radio (or similar) recordings: the members doing the choreography in tiny. They're not supposed to be dancing, and yet they are. Especially Sora. She looks like she really enjoys this song, what with all the little bits of choreography and mouthing the words along with her members when it's not her part. She's also wonderfully adorable with what looks like dimples, but that's not the point. 

2:54 starts my favorite part of the video, because that's when you can clearly hear all the bits of harmony that got produced into submission for the studio recording.

Dance practice time with foot stomps right off the bat! I did have a debate with myself over which video to talk about the choreography with, because there's this one, the choreography version, and a performance version, not to mention member-only fancams.

But the foot stomps won this video this spot.

I love how the choreography is mirrored at the beginning. It's so satisfying and you don't see it very often like that. You've got the member that's singing (I think it's Sora) stepping out and definitely being the one to be noticed, but then each of her members, moving upstage, has mirrored choreography with her. And that's so cool!

Also, the footwork at "Anywhere that's fine, let's roll the dice"? That's impressive, so satisfying, and I have been waiting the entire post to point it out because it just blanks my brain out in the best way. It's so cool, and I love that it's part of the chorus because then I get to see it more often. This isn't a one-and-done, no sirree. We get it multiple times, which means I get to smile multiple times specifically for it. 

And the way they have archery choreography to mimic the lyrics? Yes, please. Thank you.

I also love the waves at "Woo la la la", partially because that's the most "Rollin'" sounding section of the song, but it's also really just so pretty to look at. How can I not?

Thanks for reading, everyone! I hope you enjoyed this breath of fresh air and just got a place to rest and enjoy! The song is so much fun! And I'm also probably going to include a The Show stage of it this week on the music show wins post because I like it that much, despite only vaguely being familiar with it before this. 

If you've got a song you'd like me to cover, even if you don't have a particular favorite performance, feel free to drop a comment or fill out a submission to The Form!

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