KPOP Suho Solo Mini Album

          Ever since I heard about Suho making his debut as a soloist, I’ve been excited. Suho is one of the amazing voices in EXO that always gets underrated because there are powerful voices like Chen and Baekhyun. I’m also a little sad because I think that this might be his goodbye gift to his fans before enlisting 😩. I waited to see how many versions there were going to be then I ordered them all. And waited...I waited a lot longer than usual for my albums to arrive thanks to the Corona Virus but they were finally here. I ordered the two versions and their posters. This is what they looked like when they arrived:

I forgot that I ordered unfolded posters this time because the last time I forgot to choose and they sent folded ones which really didn’t do the posters any good. 

These are the two versions. The one that has only one Suho on the cover is Archive Version # 1 and the one with 4 Suhos is Archive Version # 2. Each album came with 2 photocards, 1 postcard, 1 poster, and 1 accordion card. I’m not sure if getting two photocards is the norm because on the SM site it looks like you get 1 out of 4 so I’m not sure if I got 2 because I pre-ordered or if this is something to do with Kpoptown (the site I bout the albums from). So let us dive in.

ARCHIVE VERSION # 1:

1. Poster: 

2. Photocards:

These photocards are small but because I wanted to show them clearly I scan them and now they are huge lol.

3. Postcard:

I can’t believe how pretty this is...

4. Accordion: 

I scanned all the pictures in the accordion card but I will show you its size in a later picture.  

Now the actual album. 

This is the cover. 





Inside the album, there are tabs for each some with the tab page made out of card-stock paper.

Everything about this album is esthetically pleasing.

 

And this is everything that came with the album in actual size (minus the poster of course)

ARCHIVE VERSION # 2:

1. Poster: 

I really love this poster. Suho is a very handsome man.

2. Photocards:

Again not the actual size 😬.

3. Postcard:

I love how the postcards match the album covers.

4. Accordion:

These remind me of a lot of Junmyeon’s Instagram photos.

Now the actual album: 

I'm not going to explain each picture again because it is arranged exactly like the other album.

Both albums have beautiful pictures, but if you look at the samples I provided you'll realize that all the pictures are in poses that appear to be self contemplative or meditative even. That is the feel of both albums and they fit the theme of the album really well. From what I hear Junmyeon had a lot to do with the album and it kind of shows because  I kept getting Suho Instagram vibes.

Now let us talk about the album songs. I always buy thy digital albums as well as the physical albums because it takes around 2-3 weeks for my physical albums to arrive. Plus I like to support the artists I stan as much as I can.  So I've been listening to the album since the day it dropped. I honestly don't have a favorite in this album because depending on my mood it changes. All the songs are just so beautiful. In an interview with Billboard, Suho talked about the inspiration behind the album, 

The inspiration was drawn from Vincent van Gogh’s “Self-Portrait.” I first saw it in Switzerland and Paris, and for van Gogh, it probably meant a lot to him as a person. Since I’m not a painter, I wanted to paint something in my album as a self-portrait, per se, similar to how it was for van Gogh to share his own view of himself. "

There are 6 songs in the album, 5 of which Suho helped write and one (the title song) was completely written by Suho. 

1. O2

2. 사랑, 하자 (Let's Love)

3. Made in You

4. 암막 커튼 (Starry Night)

5. 자화상 (Self-Portrait)

6. 너의 차례 (For You Now) ft. Younha

There is also a special track called Writer's Note: Behind the Self-Portrait and Suho talks during this title. I'm going to be honest and say that I don't know all that he is saying but I love the way he talks. He is motivating me more and more to really apply myself to my Korean studies.

Take a listen to some of the songs here:

But this is not my favorite rendition. This is...

Again I prefer the live session...

To be honest, do your ears a favor and just listen to the whole album, both the CD version and the live sessions. It is worth it.

EXO news

This should have been up yesterday but I got side tracked so without further ado...here it is!

SUHO:

       I’m going to start with what makes me happy. What makes me happy is that finally SM Entertainment decided to recognize that our leader Suho, EXO’s guardian Kim Junmyeon deserves to be recognized as a solo artist too. I swear, a lot of people have slept on Suho. He is a great singer, a good drama actor and an amazing theater actor. He does it all while being the single mom to 8 crazy kids, three of which he has to keep track of from afar (Lay being in China and D.O. and Xuimin being in the military). He does an amazing job. He is a good mommy. 

       Now let us talk about his new mini album Self Portrait.  As usual, there is minimum promotion from SM but EXO-Ls are doing an amazing job of promoting him...like they do for everything EXO related. So here is what we know for sure about the album. There will be two versions of the album. The album has 6 tracks and Suho was involved in every step of the process. The album will be released on March 30. 

          A teaser was released as well as some portrait paintings of Suho. On March 18, the teasers and images for the album will be released starting with a “mood Sampler”. 

          There is also a rumor that his title song is called Saranghja, which is EXO’s motto that Suho came up with. May I just say we love you too Leadernim!!!!!

Baekhyun: 

          While our boy has been busy with SuperM lately, he didn’t forget to drop the fact that he is in the studio recording music. So a Baekhyun comeback is happening y’all!!

Now I’m going to talk about what really makes me angry...

Chen:

          Seriously, Chen has been going through a lot lately but SM has not being doing much to protect him. There is only so much that we, his fans and real EXO-Ls, can do. We’ve fund raised quite a bit to counter EXOLACECAFE nastiness and we’ve been doing our best to report accounts who bully Chen or spread hate about him. This is actually one of the only times I’m glad he doesn’t have a social media presence beaides his Youtube channel. The stuff that people who call themselves EXO-Ls, spew is disgusting. ALL THE MAN DID WAS FALL IN LOVE for heaven’s sake. Our baby is human after all! 

        Even after EXO members through an SM statement told them that they wanted Chen to stay in the group they still are spewing their hate. They really need to get a life and stop their bullying ways. You don’t own the man! You can read about it here: 

SM statement

As I said the statement has not stopped them. They still continued with their hate by protesting in front of SM, which was a failure, and renting a truck to sit in front of SM with their demand which also failed because the truck was parked illegally. But their latest shenanigan is their most horrifying. They leaked his information on line as well as his parents’ information and they organized advertisements to go up on buses in Chen’s own hometown where his parents can see. Thankfully, the adverts were stopped since they did not comply with city regulations...however, how could anyone have this much hate in their heart for someone who just fell in love??

You may read about the shenanigans here:

EXO-L ACE HAS FINALLY GONE TOO FAR

CHEN’S HOMETOWN SHUTS DOWN EXO-L ACE’ATTEMPT TO EMBARRASS CHEN