October/November Kpop Haul Part 02 SUPERM

          As I said in a previous post, October was a busy month for Kpop.  This is my second post on the albums I pre-ordered for that month. This post is going to be about SuperM. I had promised in a previous post to talk a little about this group so here we are. 

          I consider them SM Entertainment's latest experiment in making money. Don't get me wrong they are a talented group of individuals and each one of them is strong in their own way but they all come from existing groups that are very much still active. SM Entertainment could have done more to promote these amazing groups but instead, they pulled a Frankenstein.  So let us talk about the members of this old/new group. 

          The members are Taemin from SHINEE, Baekhyun, and Kai from EXO, Taeyong, and Mark from NCT 127, and Ten, and Lucas from WayV. They debuted as SuperM on October 4, 2019. They are basically SM Entertainments big push into the USA and Europe. Everyone assumed that even though Baekhyun was the eldest in the group that Taemin, who was the first to debut with SHINEE would be the leader. (I was of that mind too) On a Live with the fans, everyone watched as Taemin refused the post and Baekhyun was elected instead. 

          I want to talk about the feelings that swirled around when this group was announced. Many fans were not happy about this for several reasons. 1) the original groups especially EXO and SHINEE are not being promoted as they should be while here is this group that has some members from each group is being promoted royally. (I agree with this gripe) 2) these same fans are worried that this is all to put a spotlight on NCT 127 and WayV using the older members as a pull (I think people are not giving enough credit to the kids from NCT 127 and WayV, they are all talented as heck) 3) the fans of all these boys are worried about burnout. These boys will be doing their SuperM activities on top of their main group activities. (I also think this is a valid concern). As a result, some of the fans from the original groups would not stan the new group even if they still love the members themselves. Still, the group has its following and many of the fans of the groups that these members come from are supporting them. (My thoughts on this? I'm going to stan them unless one of two things happens, they start to suffer from burnout or their groups start to suffer. Then I'll raise a stink.)

          Now let us get into the mini-album itself. The mini-album has 8 versions. One group version and 7 member versions. The mini-album has 5 songs and the title song is called Jopping. Oh, and they are called the Avengers of Kpop...don't as me why.

All 8 Albums, I told you I was going to stan them.

Title Song MV: Jopping

I Can't Stand the Rain (My favorite of the whole album)

Track List:

1. Jopping

2. I Can't Stand The Rain

3. 2 Fast

4. Super Car

5. No Manners

Each album comes with an A4 ish folded poster, a photocard, a booklet and of course the CD. Here is what I got.

GROUP VERSION: 

Front, Side and Back

The Group Album came with a sleeve.

CD and the folded poster.

I got Kai's photocard.

A random page from the booklet.

Another look at the sleeve and album.

TAEMIN'S VERSION:

BAEKHYUN'S VERSION:

Taeyong's photocard

KAI'S VERSION:

I got Ten's Photocard.

TAEYONG'S VERSION:

Another Taeyong card

TEN'S VERSION:

Ten Photocard

MARK'S VERSION:

Lucas's Photocard

LUCAS'S VERSION:

Another Lucas Photocard.

I loved all the photocards I got because they were all different, however; I regret not getting a Baekhyun card or a Mark card. 

I think the albums look good and the photos in the booklets look amazing. I'm looking forward to what they guys have to offer but I'm also keeping an eye on them for fatigue.    

I’m looking forward to what else they will put out.         

Teen Vogue Article on EXO

I love the fact that Teen Vogue wrote this great article on EXO. It has a lot of good information on EXO and their own words and reflections. Check it out HERE!

The article title. 

The picture they used which is EXO from their 6th Album.

             

October/November Kpop Haul Part 1: Chen's Mini Album

          October was a really busy month for the Kpop industry and especially for the groups that I stan. However, while I preordered all these albums the mail is pretty much unpredictable here in Kuwait so I got these albums at the beginning of November. This is why the title says October/November. Also because there was so much going on I'm not going to make one long post but rather put each album on its own so I can talk about them a little more.

           Previously I’ve talked a little about Chen’s new album but here is the full story! On the first of October Chen from EXO dropped his Second Mini Album called Dear, My Dear. It had two versions: Dear Version and My Dear Version. I, of course, bought both. Chen is an amazing vocalist in his own right separate from EXO and deserves all the support he can get.

These are the covers for both albums. Each album comes with a poster, a random photo card and a postcard with a letter from Chen. So let us get into it. As I said I bought both albums so I got two posters. 

Sorry, the pictures for the posters kind of suck but they were folded and HUGE. They are so pretty but then the model is what made those posters pretty.😍

Let us start with the Dear Version:

Cover of the album, which is basically a book.

Random photo card (out of a possible 2)

Envelope with the name of the album

This was the postcard inside the envelope 

The flip side of the postcard was a letter from Chen.

This page contains the words to one of my favorite songs in Chen's album 

Random pages from the book.

My Dear Version:

Cover of the album, which is basically a book.

Random photo card (out of a possible 2) He looks so dang cute in this one!

Envelope with the name of the album

This was the postcard inside the envelope 

The flip side of the postcard has a letter from Chen which is different from the above version.

Pages from the book of more of my favorite songs from the album.

          So let us talk about the album itself. The mini-album has 6 songs totaling 22 minutes. The title song is called Shall We? and he released an MV for it as well as the second song from the album called My Dear.

Shall We?

My Dear

You'll probably be surprised to know that while I like these two songs they are not my favorite among the album. That honor goes to the songs that come after them and have no MVs attached to them. 

Of these 4 my absolute favorite is Hold You Tight. I tend to loop these four songs and listen to them continuously when the mood takes me. 

          Chen's letters are my challenge. As soon as I finish my exams I'm going to sit down and do my best to translate these letters and see what he had to say. I have not looked at any translations online just so I can challenge myself.        

Inspire Me Korea - Story Box

          I've been so busy lately with my Korean class as well as a few other classes that I am taking that this blog has completely gone down on my urgent list so for that 정말 죄송합니다! (with a deep bow).      

          I was really looking forward to this box because I wanted to read some Korean folktales. So let us get into it.

          The first thing that caught my eye was this beautiful bookmark. This in and of itself made the box for me. Bookmarks are something that I am addicted to as much as books or pens 😬

          I’ve used this sheet mask before and I love it. In fact I don’t really remember ever hating any of the sheet masks that I’ve gotten in this box. 

          I think this pen is 너무 귀여워요 (very cute)! I have a few of these pens and they really last a long time despite being cutesy. 

          No Inspire Me Korea box is complete with out some sort of snack and this box had two of my favorites! I am very content, yummy!

          The key chain is from Running Man, a variety show, and the photo cards are GOT7, a group I love so I was very happy with them. 

          To me the language card and the magazine are very important and I really enjoy getting and collecting them from every box I’ve gotten so far. 

          I haven’t read this yet but I am really looking forward to doing that. My only wish is that there were also the same stories in Korean so that we can have both English and Korean. 

All in all a great addition to all the other boxes I have gotten from Inspire Me Korea. This will also be my final one for a while. I might buy the one off box from time to time but until I move I’m not going to renew my subscription. I’m really going to miss this box big time.