After a month-long delay, on April 21th, 2014, Infinite has finally come back with their 2nd full length album,
Season 2! The concept is that the members of Infinite are the "last Romeos," or romanticists. This is honestly my dream concept so seeing Infinite in creamy white lace suits, I knew this album would be perfection.
Reflecting over Infinite's almost four year music career, I came to the conclusion that Infinite is perfection; their songs and choreography can't possible get any better than it is now. And then "Last Romeo" happened. After listening to the tracklist preview, the songs on this album seem so much more amazing than any of Infinite's past songs. I have never been more excited for any other comeback (though "Man in Love" is pretty up there as well, as I love the romantic concepts). I have this thing where I can't listen to the full album until I've listened to it on my own CD, so it's been pretty torturous waiting for my album and only listening to the previews on iTunes. On a side note, the "Last Romeo" MV is on the iTunes US store, so it's nice to watch when internet isn't available!
I pre-ordered Season 2 from
Kpoptown.com, and it shipped out on April 20th at 8:30PM, just half an hour after the album release in Korea! It's as if they knew how much I'm anticipating this album. I was scared that this album would be a limited release, like
Over The Top, which is also why I pre-ordered immediately! I ordered the Korean version; ever since Woollim merged with SM, Infinite now releases Taiwanese versions as well (Toheart as a Taiwanese version), which is the same as the Korean, just with Chinese characters. The Taiwanese version will be out on June 10th. Infinite will also release three versions of "Last Romeo" as a single on July 2nd.
And the wait is finally over, as I've finally received my package! It arrived 13 days after being shipped, a little longer than average for me. It arrived, as usual, in a waterproof bubblewrap-lined envelope with another bubblewrap layer inside and came in perfect condition. As a pre-order gift, I also received a really adorable set of 5 double-sided Kpoptown unofficial photocards of Infinite in their white lace outfit.
This full length album has a similar layout to Infinite's first full length album,
Over The Top. There is a gorgeous sleeve, with an elegent version of Infinite's latest logo. I really like this design, as it strategically still shows Infinite's faces while still showing the symbol well (refer to previous photos). This symbol also spills over to the sides on the sleeve. The backside is full of this symbol, creating a beautiful background.
Here is a close up of the front and back of the album, with the sleeve on. The back includes the tracklist, the sticker (which is on the sleeve itself), and the album still says "2014.4" despite being released in May (obviously they wouldn't reprint their albums, but I'm just pointing it out as an interesting fact).
Here is the album cover without the sleeve. Just from this concept photo I knew that "Last Romeo" would be my most favorite era!
This album is a tri-fold. Opening it once reveals more of that gorgeous Infinite symbol pattern on the left, and a nice matte beige on the right. Opening the flap once more reveals the photobook and photocard in the center, and CD on the right, along with Infinite's social media links.
Here is the cover of the photobook. Everyone looks so handsome and definitely like romanticists (except for Dongwoo and Hoya's hair color lol)! This photobook is really high quality and has 47 pages of photos from three different photoshoots (sadly, excluding the black lace outfits).
Majority of the photos are individual shots. The first set of photos is of Infinite wearing the white lace outfits, then the black (Myungsoo cow) outfits, and lastly the alternative black outfits (ripped pants, leather, etc.). There are also subunit shots of Infinite F and Infinite H, as well as group photos from the first two photoshoots, all placed in their respective sections by photoshoot. In the picture above, the photobook goes in order from top left, clockwise.
The last few pages are for the members' dedication messages, a special dedication message as a whole, and the song lyrics and credits. I'm so happy to see the members of Infinite participating in so many of these songs! To my surprise, Eric Nam and Sunggyu wrote the chorus to "Last Romeo!"
Here is the tracklist, as printed in the photobook. I won't give my opinion on each track, because honestly, this entire album is so amazing and breathtaking, from the intro to the hidden track. There is a total of 13 songs and one hidden track. Here's a huge paragraph of my fangirling over random tracks from the album (which probably would look reader-friendly in bullet points...) The title track, "Last Romeo," is another creation by Sweetune; I'm so thrilled that Infinite worked with Sweetune after taking a break to work with Rphabet for "Destiny." Someone stated during "Destiny" promotions that that was the style Infinite had been aiming for, so I was scared that they were leaving their classic Sweetune days behind. The other track that was promoted is "Memories," which is such a fun pop ballad; I love Myungsoo's "dododododo~" and Dongwoo's vocals really surprised me here! When I first heard the tracklist previews, I couldn't get enough of "Reflex." The chorus is just so fun and upbeat, like "Inconvenient Truth"; I think this will be within my top 3 favorite Infinite songs! And another stunning factor of this album that shows so much growth is the individual and subunit tracks. Sunggyu wrote his solo "Light," Woohyun wrote and composed "When I Close My Eyes," a touching ballad he performed at One Great Step Returns, and Infinite H, along with Rphabet, wrote the lyrics to their song "Alone," which was also performed at OGSR. This is Infinite H's first full song with no one being featured! And Infinite F has officially released a song, "Crazy," which is different from the one they performed at OGSR, meaning they have other songs up their sleeves ready to be released! Also two tracks, "Follow Me" and "A Person Like Me," were originally released in Infinite's 2012
Merry Christmas digital album. And lastly, there is a hidden track as part of the last track, which is an acoustic version of "Hey Hello" that lasts for about a minute and a half. I guess we can look forward to hearing this song on an upcoming album!
This album comes with one photocard out of 14 different designs. It comes in a fancy little envelope, which was sadly bent on the side for me. As you can see, I got Sunggyu!
There is one photo per member, from the various photoshoots, but each member has two different messages on the back. To reveal the message, you have to rip open that center strip. Sunggyu, Dongwoo, Hoya and Sungjong's photocards are from the white lace photoshoot and have the elegant background, while Woohyun and Sungyeol are in their alternative black outfits (not the one with Myung's cow outfit) but with uninteresting poses and backgrounds, and lastly Myungsoo has the fancy background but is wearing his cow outfit. There is also a rare photocard where the entire backside is gold.
The only thing I'm disappointed about is the poster selection. There are three types of posters, two of which L is wearing his cow outfit and one of which they're wearing their alternative black outfits, but the composition is boring (they're just standing in a line with a plain background). I really wish there were a poster with either the black lace suits or white lace suits!
I ended up getting a poster anyways. It's about the same size as Infinite's latest larger posters (
New Challenge,
Destiny, L's Bravo Viewtiful) but oddly enough it is half an inch longer height-wise and half an inch shorter length-wise.
Overall, I've never loved Infinite as much as I do now. The concept, the anticipation in the comeback, the live stages, the music video, the depth and variety in the songs, I love everything about
Season 2 and "Last Romeo!"
