Apink: Secret Garden 3rd Mini Album Review

I've always been a fan of Eunji and Apink, so it was about time I bought one of their albums!  I love Apink's always fresh and innocent concept, and matching bubbly and cheery music.  Apink released their third mini album, Secret Garden, on July 5, 2013.  This is the first project with just six member since Yookyung left the group.

I absolutely love the album cover of Secret Garden.  The pastel colors, photo filter, grassy field and lemonade stand all fit perfectly with Apink's young, girly and refreshing concept.  The sketched in flower at the bottom add creativity and more fun to the album artwork.  At the bottom are the names of the six current Apink members.  The angle of the photo kind of distorts the image, but it's really hamburger style (rather than hotdog style), with dimensions 8.25 inches by 7.5 inches.

The cover design shows such cute innocence of which I simply can't get enough!  This entire album is so darling.  The back cover simply displays the open field, along with the colorful sketches of blooming flowers and birds.  There are also translucent pink petals romantically drifting down.  At the bottom is an adorable frog prince, along with the tracklist.  

Here is the tracklist printed from the photobook, along with the falling petals.  This album has a lot of dedication, with beautiful music videos for "U You," "NoNoNo" and "Secret Garden."

1. "U You" is just as upbeat, fun and girly as previous title tracks "I Don't Know" and "Bubibu."  This album's sound is very similar to those two songs, which I absolutely love though it doesn't show much variety into song style.  
2. "NoNoNo" is the promotional track for this album, and with good reason.  From the beginning, the song is very catchy and addicting.  This track, along with "U You," bring so much poppy goodness to the album.
3. "Lovely Day" is a slower song that still has a fun edge to it, yet it's more relaxing.  I love listening to this song because it showcases each member's beautiful voices, though honestly all of these songs do illustrate Apink's singing ability.
4. "I Need You" is also an upbeat, yet slower song that fits well with this album's concept.  It's very refreshing and carefree, always putting a smile to my face.
5. "Secret Garden" is a beautiful ballad.  I like how the album is named after a ballad, showing more variety in genres (despite what I said for the first track).  
6. "NoNoNo (Inst.)" is just as it sounds.  I'm not really a fan of instrumentals, but this song does have a fun beat that cheers me up.

On the left is the CD, which is held in place by some pink foam.  The CD is really pretty, with a pastel sketch of blooming flowers, flapping birds and a crowned frog.  On the right is a nicely bounded and high quality photobook.  This photobook is surprisingly thick, with about 66 pages of mostly photos!

The pages are mostly photos of the members, with no biographies or names.  There are about four different photoshoots and settings, including the one on the front cover, one where the members are in their "NoNoNo" bow dresses, one with the girls wearing delicate white dresses with a rosy background like in their promotional poster, and lastly a white background with the girls in blue jumpers.

At the back of the photobook are two pages for the lyrics and credits for the tracks.  I love the petals and drawing in the corner!

This album comes with a photocard of one of the six members from the outdoor photoshoot.  There are 12 different photocards, two variations per member from various photoshoots.  I was hoping to receive Eunji, but I'm happy receiving Naeun, who I've come to know through her time with Taemin on We Got Married.  I used to follow Beast when they had just released "Beautiful" and "I Like You the Best" and I just found out Naeun was the main role in both of those music videos!  What a small world this is...Naeun looks so refreshing and happy in this photo!  On the back is her adorable autograph, along with "I love u" in English. After seeing all of the 12 photocards, I honestly think this one is the prettiest and I'm so happy to have gotten this one!

Overall, I absolutely love the concept of this album, my photocard, and all of the songs are so catchy and fun.  Apink never disappoints!