1st Look Magazine Vol. 186 Review

Golden Child continues their long list of quality magazine shoots, this time with the Vol. 186 issue of 1st Look from November 7th. I picked up this copy in early December from Music Plaza for $8.99. The magazine came in a clear plastic seal that folded over to fit the magazine's dimensions perfectly. 

1st Look is a biweekly Korean entertainment and lifestyle magazine. This magazine is made of slightly nicer quality than a nice newspaper, and is quite large, with dimensions 10.25" by 15.25". Removing this exterior plastic reveals another plastic seal as well.

Here are the contents; "Golden Time" is definitely Golden Child's article!

And now onto "Golden Time"!

Golden Child's section contains 10 pages. The first 8 pages contain the same photos as 1st Look's KCON 2019 Thailand Special Edition that was released the month before.

These photos are really just too cute! Seungmin fits this look so well.

I love how this magazine always contains such large, high quality photos.

The last two pages contain new content I believe not included in the Thailand Special Edition. I really love Jaehyun's sweater!

I can't wait to see what magazine pictorials are in store for Golden Child as we head into 2020! And to add on, I seriously can't express how happy I am for Golden Child's first music show win, earned on MCountdown on December 26th! It's been such a long, dry year for Golden Child and Goldenness and for them to earn a trophy 38 days after promotions began. I'm so elated to see Golden Child walk on the golden flowery path from predebut to their first win and soon to their first solo concert!

[LA November 2019] K-Content EXPO 2019 Kpop Concert Experience

This LA trip has been very special; I blogged about my time in Koreatown here, greeting Lovelyz at LAX here, and the K-Content EXPO here, and below I'll be blogging about my experience at the Kpop Concert!

First off I'm really grateful to get to cheer for Lovelyz along with three really great Lovelinus! One is my dear Woollim stan friend who I first met at KCON NY 2018, one is my Lovelinus friend who I first met at KTMF 2019 when we coincidentally had tickets next to each other in a swarm of SHINee and Super Junior fans, and lastly is my Lovelinus' friend who I'm so glad to have met at this event! It's just such a magical feeling being surrounded by Lovelinus in real life, rather than just casual fans or general Kpop stans; there's this connection, especially when shouting the fanchants in unison.

The artists performing were Lovelyz, JBJ95, and Heize, and to my surprise, a lot of the audience truly stanned at least one of these artists. As a free concert, I thought many casual fans would come, but I was proven wrong with all the stans! It made me so happy seeing so many Lovelinus (a lot of guys) with their lightsticks and slogans.

The host came on stage and introduced a special MC, none other than Yein! Yein spoke entirely in English, hyping the crowd, and explaining the expo and special guests sitting in the reserved seats. As special MC, Yein was on stage for just over 2 minutes.

Then a VCR of Lovelyz played, however it kept glitching. Lovelyz were waiting on the right of the stage, and ended up just going on stage in getting in formation, paying no mind to the technical difficulties. To my surprise, they began with "Hi~"! This is one of their hardest fanchants, and after trying to learn it for KTMF, I gave up on it and hoped they wouldn't perform it this time. I tried to chime in while other Lovelinus performed the fanchant.

Not even 3 seconds after Lovelyz finished performing "Hi~", the next song already started playing; it's unfortunately that they were really rushing the girls throughout their set. The next song was "Now, We", my favorite Lovelyz track (thankfully with a straightforward fanchant!)! I'm so happy to finally see this performed live. I screamed my lungs out with the fanchants and cheering, along with my Lovelinus friends; we were so in sync and hopefully loud enough for the girls to hear us!

Surprisingly they didn't let Lovelyz have an intro ment yet, giving the girls just over 10 seconds before "That Day" starting playing. Us Lovelinus chanted the girls' names perfectly at the beginning; it felt so magical performing the fanchants with others in front of Lovelyz! Not to mention "That Day" is my second favorite title track, so I'm really happy they performed this one too!

After 3 songs, the girls finally got a breather and had time to rest and drink some water while the host came back on stage. The host gave the girls a brief interview in Korean while translating in English for the audience.

Q1: How do you feel meeting your fans here in the US?
A1: [Yein, in English] What's up LA! We're so happy to be here and we were here in April...[Cheers] Do you remember?! We're happy to meet our LA Lovelinus, so nice to meet you!

Q2: If you have anything to say to your fans, please do.
A2: [Yein was about to speak, then Mijoo spoke instead! In English] Sorry, I don't speak English, but really I love you so much! [I think Soul spoke next in English] See you later! [Another member] Love you~

The girls got into their next formation and one member said "Are you ready?!" Then "Beautiful Days" began playing! Out of all the fanchants I had prepared, this was the ultimate test, especially with the intense name chant in the middle! I had practiced this one with one Lovelinus friend, but the four of us never practiced it together. This was definitely my proudest moment as a Lovelinus!

After "Beautiful Days" was a long pause (meaning 25 seconds in between songs instead of 3) so the audience started cheering. But then a member (Yein?) said "Next song is 'Rewind'"! I was pleasantly surprised their set wasn't over, and on top of that they'd be performing a b-side! Another song that I didn't practice the fanchant for, which meant I could simply focus on their beautiful vocals. They continually gave fanservice, sending hearts to the audience! I'll also take this time to point out that everyone remained sitting throughout all performances, which was really great so that we could see the artists well!

The girls said "thank you" while continuing to wave, then (I think?) Yein said "Our last song is 'Ah-Choo'. Enjoy with us. Thank you". This is definitely a great way to end Lovelyz' set, especially since the mall had been playing this MV on loop since the previous night! I do admit I fumbled a bit on the fanchant...the girls then said "goodbye" while continuing to wave.

Right after Lovelyz exited the stage, they stood in front of A for about a minute, sending hearts and waving to fans as their "Ah-Choo" MV played on screen in a faster speed. We shouted the fanchant while waving to our girls!

Honestly with the lack of sleep and frustration that came with this event, I wasn't able to fully pay much attention to the other artists. But for JBJ95, there were two fans right behind us who seemed like they flew from Japan just for this event, and it was great hearing their super loud cheers and fanchants. It felt really special being with such passionate people! I do recall that JBJ95 had much more time in between songs to catch their breaths and talk to the audience.

Heize performed last, and I feel like her fans had the most luck. Heize gave a lot of fan service, giving fans in the first row of B (which of course were the reserved seats) bottles of water, signing for a fan, collecting a sign and stuffed animal from fans, and even bringing up a fan to sing a duet with her on stage! That fan turned out to be the one venting her frustration to me earlier that day, and she had the aisle seat a few rows behind me. Also as Heize began one of her songs, the sound system crashed, which was when Heize did some of her fan service and really extended her time on stage.

Afterwards, our Lovelinus group ate at Kang Ho Dong Baekjeong (KBBQ). This was my first time here and I can't get over how amazing the food was there. And to complete our evening, they played a b-side from Fall in Lovelyz (blanking out on which one...) and Infinite's "Tell Me"!

Overall, despite the circumstances, I'm so happy Lovelyz performed so many songs and that there were so many Lovelinus! 2019 was my year to see Lovelyz in the US; I hope next time I can see them at a solo concert in Korea or on a world tour!

My Mini LA Ktown Haul! and Upcoming Choice Music Package (And Confirmation that I'm Whipped for Golden Child)

I had it all planned out on how I would collect all of Golden Child's photocards and special photos from their latest album Re-boot, however my plan quickly backfired when Kpoptown "forgot" to send me 2 normal albums and said they would resend them but never did (that was over two weeks ago). Furthermore, hardly anyone is trading or selling the photocards or special cards. I haven't seen anyone selling the deluxe special photos and with the deluxe albums out of stock online, I'm starting to lose hope in completing this collection.

Prior to this haul, I had 3 Deluxe and 3 Normal copies of Re-boot in my possession.

Choice Music had a Cyber Monday sale where I ordered 3 Deluxe and 2 Normal, however I'm still waiting for this to be shipped. I learned that there are two different systems between Choice's physical store and online store, hence there are price differences and inventory differences. The same applies to Music Plaza.

My brother visited Music Plaza on December 7th and found these treasures for me: 1st Look Vol. 186 (featuring Golden Child), Lovelyz in Winter World 3 Kihno Video, and Golden Child's normal version of Re-boot. The worker confirmed that there were only 2 copies of the normal version in stock, and the deluxe version was sold out. I'll have future posts about the magazine and Kihno.

I really wanted to cap my brother's Re-boot buying spree to just 1 Deluxe and 3 Normals for this haul, but then at Choice we had a revelation: for the normal version, you can actually partially see the top and right edges of the special photo.

Because of this, we compared the special photos I already have along with what I could find online (which was quite hard; I found all but Daeyeol's). For example, Seungmin is the only one with red on the edge, so it was obvious that the first copy has his special photo. The others are much harder to see though, and it also depends on how far in the special photo is placed within the folder. I felt horrible figuring this out since it should be randomized, however I was only going to buy one more copy at Choice when now I got four more copies at Choice; so in the end because of this, I bought more copies.

My brother looked at the 2 sealed Normals he purchased at Music Plaza; one was dark blue all around, so it could either be Tag, Jaehyun, or Daeyeol (as we didn't know how his looks like); the second was light blue in the left corner, then white all around. The second had blue in the top left, so we thought it could be Y, Jibeom, or Donghyun. After my brother came back, we opened the albums together to see how well we did with our selections. The first ended up being Daeyeol (mystery solved on how his special photo looks like!) with the Y photocard and the second was the Donghyun special photo with the Joochan photocard. So far, Donghyun and Y are duplicates for me.

For the 4 Normals from Choice, we opened the albums in order of confidence. We knew for sure the first album had the Seungmin special photo; it also came with the Seungmin photocard. The second album had dark blue at the top left, top right, and all along the right; we figured it was Y, and it ended up being Y with the Seungmin photocard. For the third album we guessed it was Joochan, and it ended up being Joochan with the Y photocard. And lastly we were debating if this would be Jibeom or Donghyun, and it ended up being Donghyun with the Bomin photocard. Now I have a duplicate Seungmin photocard, and two duplicate Y photocards and Donghyun special photos.

Choice had a total of 6 Normals and 2 Deluxes in stock (some were in the back), and I ended up with 4 Normals and 1 Deluxe. Here is my pull for the Deluxe; now of course for this version it's completely unknown, so I'm relieved I pulled someone I didn't already have.

Currently for the Deluxe special photos, I have Y, Tag, Jibeom, and Joochan.

For the Normal special photos, I have Daeyeol, Y, Tag, Seungmin, Donghyun (x3), Joochan, and Bomin.

For the Normal photocards, I have Y (x3), Jangjun, Seungmin (x2), Jaehyun, Joochan, and Bomin.

Reflecting on all of this (having 9 Normal albums, 7/10 special photos, and 6/10 photocards), I figured that I really shouldn't keep the 2 Normals I had ordered from Choice. I called them and they happily modified my order, including the shipping cost. I'm thankful that they're pretty backed up in shipping out their Cyber Monday orders. Once my 3 Deluxes arrive, I'll update this post with my pulls.

Update: I continued calling Choice Music about my order, and eventually on December 18th they said that their shipment of Deluxes never came through, and they refunded me. While they were quite friendly, it was honestly really frustrating that they were selling albums that they never had in stock (and the site did say "in stock", not "preorder"). And of course they have no more Deluxes in store. At this point, I think it's a sign that it'll be almost impossible to collect all the Deluxe special photos!

Golden Child: Re-boot 1st Album (Deluxe Version) Review

Golden Child has come back with their first full album, Re-boot, on November 18th, 2019! There is a normal version and a deluxe version. I gave a brief intro to this era and blogged about ordering my Re-boot albums here and unboxed the normal version here. I'll be unboxing the deluxe version and will include a breakdown of the tracklist in this post.

The deluxe version is packaged in a sturdy matte box, with a simple front cover; the center design and text in silver and an enlargement of the new Golden Child logo in a gloss overlay. The spine has the new logo and "THE 1ST ALBUM" in matching silver text.

The spine is absolutely gorgeous, especially in the dark. I love how Woollim's been adding this reflective text to their spines as they really stand out, even in the dark.

The other spine as the album title "RE-boot" in the same silver text. The packaging is about 9" by 12.125" by 1.375".

The back cover has part of the new logo bleeding over in the gloss overlay; the back cover also contains the tracklist of this full length album in silver. I'll discuss the tracklist more further down. Beginning with Lovelyz Kei's solo album, Woollim's albums now have a white KOMCA sticker instead of the holographic authentication sticker.

The flap on the right is held in place with two magnets; opening this flap reveals the photobook at the very top.

From top to bottom (here shown left to right) is the photobook, calendar, and special photo. The photobook, calendar, and special photo are all almost as big as the album packaging. The bottom of the box contains the photocard set which has a secure cutout, along with the postcard set which is placed just above the CD.

The cover design of the deluxe photobook is similar to that of the normal version, except the deluxe is in a shiny red lettering. The cover is made of what feels like construction paper.

Here is the back cover.

There are 100 pages. This page is the same as in the normal version.

The photobook begins with a group photo from the Cafe Valor photoshoot. Majority of the photos here are individual shots from this shoot, the all-black shoot, and the black-and-red shoot.

While in the normal version photobook the individual member photos seemed randomized, the deluxe version photoshoot is organized by placing photos together from the same shoot. The first set of photos is from the Cafe Valor shoot.

Most pages contain one photo, and generally the page is formatted well to show off the photo.

The next set of photos is from the black-and-red shoot. These two pages are an exception to the nice formatting...the photos here are just so small and don't need to be in landscape mode.

This formatting however, I absolutely love it. A zoomed out view of Tag shows off his charisma while that closeup of Jibeom with his shadow is spot-on.

Next is another set of photos from the all-black shoot. I really like the angles used here.

Following is another set of photos from the Cafe Valor shoot. Donghyun is seriously killing it this comeback!

In Golden Child's album unboxing video from The Show, I can't believe Jibeom chose these as his favorite photos from this photobook! Jaehyun's photo...is a bit...provocative...

Next are the last set of photos from the black-and-red shoot.

I personally don't like these types of shoots; I prefer those with a more natural setting like the other two shoots. However I'm really in love with all of Jibeom's photos from this shoot; his side profile is so beautiful.

There is one more set of photos from the all-black shoot.

There are several pages that contain two photos per page.

And finishing off the bulk of the photobook is one more set of photos from the Cafe Valor shoot. I've always loved reflections and mirrors in photoshoot, and Seungmin's photo here is no exception!

Also each track has its own page within the photobook, complete with lyrics and song credits.

A group photo from the all-black shoot concludes the photos, and is followed by three pages for the thanks to messages.

The last page contains the album credits.

The calendar comes bundled up in a translucent paper sleeve.

There are 12 loose leaf pages, one for each month. Each photo is from the Cafe Valor shoot, except for December which is a group photo from the all-black shoot. The dates are lined up in one row at the bottom, with holidays outlined in red and special Golden Child dates in orange.

Also I have to bring this up. I love Jaehyun with all my heart, but how can I display this calendar come February?! Why are his photos from this era so explicit?!

The backside of each page has the new Golden Child logo and album logo.

And here's Joochan! The deluxe version includes one random special photo out of 10, all from the black-and-red photoshoot. The special photos from the deluxe version are all different than those from the normal version. I'm very particular about hairstyles; I like natural hair color and not styled up, however Joochan really pulls off this shade of pink and styled up really well! I'm happy to have pulled him.

The backside has the member's printed sign and message. The back is matte while the front is glossy. The general differences between the special photos from the deluxe and normal are that for the deluxe, the images are more close-ups and the backsides are black instead of white.

The postcard set and photocard set come with matte red paper sleeves, with the new Golden Child logo in a gloss black overlay. All deluxe copies come with these postcards and photocards; there are no random pulls from these inclusions.

There are 21 postcards, starting with a group photo from the Cafe Valor shoot, followed by one photo per member from Daeyeol to Bomin from the same shoot, then one more round of individual member photos from the all-black shoot.

There are three versions of the backside, but generally this side has the album title and new logo printed. These postcards all have a matte finish and are about 5.875" by 4.25".

There are 20 photocards; two per member and in order from Daeyeol to Bomin.

The photocards are all matte and has the same dimensions and corner roundness as the photocards from the normal version, as well as from Goldenness and Wish.

The backside has the member's printed autograph and message. This era marks Bomin's new autograph design...

The CD is held in place by a foam wedge, inside a cutout at the bottom of the box.

This full length album contains 12 tracks. I'd like to credit the K-Goldenness on Twitter @SY_Love_U who identified past works by these composers.

1. Re-boot - this intro, along with title "WANNABE", is composed by Woollim's in-house composer BLSSD! BLSSD worked on various Woollim artists' past songs, but key songs that match this concept include Infinite's "Back", "Bad", "The Eye", and "Tell Me".
2. WANNABE - this title definitely steps away from Golden Child's previously youthful and energetic concept, and goes towards Infinite's darker, mature concepts like in the title tracks I mentioned. The song has such a different style; it reminds me of when Infinite first released "Back", where that song was just a completely different sound from their entire discography, but like "Back", I soon fell in love with "WANNABE" as well. Also the lyrics and music video are pretty deep, explaining how there are 10 personalities who are each other's "wannabe" and want to be the other. Lastly, I really like Joochan's voice here; it definitely sounds different but fits well with the song.
3. 느껴져 (Lately) - I really like this b-side! It has a late 2000s Kdrama OST feel to it. There's probably a good reason why I love this song; it's created by 1Take and TAK, the ones who created Golden Child's best b-side "What Happened" as well as bop "If"!
4. 나침반 (Compass) - this is the b-side that Golden Child has been promoting. The choreography is really pretty; there's one formation that really is like a compass!
5. No Matter What (Jang Jun & TAG) feat. Joo Chan - first off I'm so proud of Jangjun and Tag working on the lyrics for all tracks they've participated in this album except for "Don't Run Away". Second, this is co-created by 1Take and TAK, showing their breadth of genres. This is the rapper line's duet, and I like the pairing with Joochan as their voices really balance well.
6. 문제아 (A Song For Me) (Joo Chan Solo) - Joochan's solo was previously released as a digital track on February 27th of this year; unfortunately he got the short end of the stick by not having a new song on this album, but it is nice that he's featured in the rapper line's track. This song is a remake; it is a slow ballad that suits Joochan's song so beautifully.
7. 그러다 봄 (Spring Again) - Golden Child released this as a digital single on May 2nd, and I have to say it's my most favorite song by them (and in Kpop in general) to date! Not only do I love just how much Jaehyun gets in this song (though this is a huge factor), I just love the overall aesthetic and really wish to see this performed live one day. J. Yoon is the mastermind behind the lyrics and composition of this song, and has previously created Golden Child's intro tracks "Gol-Cha!" and "Wish" along with the arrangement for "You", along co-creating many Infinite B-side tracks.
8. She's My Girl - there's usually one track that seems a bit more rock(?), and this one is that for me. It is created by the same team who created Infinite's ballad "Still I Miss You".
9. 둘만의 천국 (Our Heaven) (Dae Yeol & Seung Min & Dong Hyun) - this is a surprising subunit but nonetheless they came together to create a beautiful song that showcases all of their voices! The creators of this song also worked on Lovelyz' ballad "Shooting Star".
10. Fantasia (Y Solo) - I just love this song so much; it has such Infinite F vibes and Y's voice fits so beautifully. This is co-created by CODE 9, who also composed and arranged Woohyun's "Hold On Me".
11. 도망가지마 (Don't Run Away) - another great B-side, with lyrics written solely by SEION who co-created "Thank You" and "Genie".
12. 놓지 않기로 해 (Go Together) (Jae Hyun & Ji Beom & Bo Min) - I have so many feels for this song, which I go off in the next paragraph. Along with Joochan's solo, this is the other ballad on the album. I would have never imagined a subunit with these three (my top three!), and for them to have a ballad where they can really show their vocal chops really makes this year(+) long wait so worth it. This song is also co-created by CODE 9. They've created my two favorite songs from this album; I'll keep an eye out for them in the future!

For "Spring Again", it says Golden Child worked on the chorus!

And for "She's My Girl:, it says Hong Joochan of Golden Child worked on the chorus!

After waiting over a year for another (physical) album, I'm beyond ecstatic that it is Golden Child's first full album, complete with solo and subunit tracks to let each member shine. I'm getting so emotional just thinking about it - Jaehyun and Bomin who sometimes have no lines, get to share their voices in a ballad. And on top of that Jibeom's in this subunit, it's literally all my three biases in one song showcasing their talents. Also "Fantasia" is such a beautiful and fun pop song that fits Y's voice so perfectly. My other top song from this album is "Spring Again" which is has really saved majority of 2019 for me, partly because it's just my aesthetic, and partly because Jaehyun is finally getting the lines he deserves; I'm so happy that Golden Child finally performed it live at their Re-boot showcase and hope they'll continue performing this beauty live! And of course an honorable mention goes to "Wannabe". I was worried that by working with Rphabet who created many Infinite title tracks and to me really defined Infinite's sound during their later years, Golden Child would be replicating Infinite's style, but this comeback has shown me that they can make this concept their own and only proves that Golden Child can take on such a different concept with full force.

This era also has two posters, which I blogged about in the normal version.

Overall, I love Golden Child and anything they produce, I will love no matter what! But regardless of my love for Golden Child, the Wannabe era is perfect and shows Golden Child's growth and maturity, and the music itself is holistic and shows the members' vocal growth and abilities, and the physical albums are high quality and contain a lot of items. And lastly, the promotions this comeback have been the best Woollim has ever done, with the release of so much content that almost makes up for the long wait!