Ever since Back to the Future was first released in 1985, the phrase “Back to the Future” has evoked a sense of boundary-breaking adventure. The Hollywood blockbuster works surprisingly well as inspiration for K-pop boy group NCT DREAM’s fifth studio album. As part of the sci-coded SM Entertainment project Neo Culture Technology (aka NCT), the septet has experience taking on a high-concept theme. But more than that, NCT DREAM is a group that started with one concept—an ever-rotating lineup of teen idols—before settling into a fixed, seven-member lineup. The fates of members MARK, RENJUN, JENO, HAECHAN, JAEMIN, CHENLE and JISUNG could have been much different, and NCT DREAM use the movie, about a teen boy who travels back in time to when his parents first fell in love only to inadvertently erase his own existence, to inspire a look back at their own group origins. “BTTF” (short for “Back to the Future”) fully embraces its namesake. In the synthwave-forward hip-hop song, NCT sing as if they’ve unexpectedly been given the opportunity to change the future through time travel. Inevitably, over the course of the dance track’s characteristically boisterous chorus, the seven members choose not to change the future, realising they are happy with their timelines as they already exist: “Collection of memories, I know we won’t need no revision.” The nine-track album’s single “CHILLER” is a comparatively laidback trap-beat track that uses the sci-fi concept less overtly to express some swagger: “I know, I know, I’m like a god/Far off in space-time/Somewhere out there.” While Go Back to the Future may play with the past, NCT DREAM’s ambitions stay firmly forward-looking.
