Golden Child: Pump It Up 2nd Single Album Review

Golden Child held their first virtual concert, ONTACT CONCERT - NOW, on September 13th, 2020. Towards the end, they showed a VCR announcing a comeback on October 7th! This surprised many since Woollim is preparing Drippin's debut at the end of October, but I'm so happy that Woollim is getting better at stacking their artists' promotion schedules. Based on the quick VCR, it looked like Golden Child's upcoming comeback may be a bright concept!

On September 21st, pre-orders and video call events were announced via Twitter, along with album details (all in text, no photos). At this point, we know that this is a single, there are 3 versions, there are 2 out of 60 photocards included, and 1 out of 10 AR cards included.

And on September 26th, Woollim finally released the first official teaser since the announcement video! We now know the album (and most likely the title track) are called "Pump It Up", Golden Child is back to using their original logo, and the theme is mustard yellow with a fun pattern reminiscent of Golden Child's 2018 Season's Greetings! And almost everyday since the 26th, we've been gifted with more teasers that confirm Bright Child is back!

As promotions have already started and I'm still waiting for my albums to arrive, I'll spill my fangirl thoughts! 

• I am in awe with how different the 3 versions are! One of the members did say that they weren't sure what we'd like, so they prepared it all, and they really did! From retro to students at Geumdong University to pilots at Golden Air, it's amazing how they have such drastic concepts for one album. They could've definitely gone all in on just the university one or pilot one, especially with more Golden Child branding for these concepts. I am in love with the Golden Air style, followed by the university style, then retro.
• The music video! Just like how they have such distinct concepts, the MV also has so many distinct scenes that could've been used for future comebacks. Don't get me wrong - I absolutely love all the concepts and scenes, I'm just pleasantly surprised Woollim is using so many great ideas and concepts in one comeback! I absolutely love how so many scenes from the music video have the Golden Child brand, like Gol-Cha Studio (Scene 20 Take 10 Roll 13 for Seungmin's birthday and "Pump It Up" first win!), Gol-Cha Company, GNCD Restaurant (the menu behind Jaehyun says "HOTDODGS"), the "Pump It Up" by GNCD LP (future merch...?), the GNCD and "Pump It Up" posters behind the googoos. All the scenes are so adorable, but I think my favorite is unknown noir actor Jibeom, especially when he starts dancing with the trenchcoat and aviators!
• Golden Child's second win, and on Seungmin's birthday! First off, I'm relieved and thrilled that Golden Child is back with their usual bright concept, and that the more darker concepts were just for the trilogy. And I'm really so happy that they won with their original bright concept, showing that they are first place worthy with various concepts!
• Tag blew me away during the concept teasers, but then Jibeom really took center stage for me during this comeback! I've always been one for natural hair, but since Woollimpick, Jibeom has made me change my mind on dyed blond hair. Also I don't like hair up, but again Jibeom really changed my opinion during Woollimpick era and now this era with his hair styled up! It looks so good on him! And all of his outfits, his lines, his gestures in the choreography, he just shines~ I'm so glad I declared being bongbeom biased during last comeback instead of solely Jaehyun biased, or else I'd be so conflicted this time!
• I can go on and on, but my albums have finally arrived so I'll get straight to the unboxing^^

Golden Child has officially wrapped up their self-discovery trilogy, which began with "Wannabe" on November 17, 2019. And now almost a year later, Golden Child is back to their original logo and concept with "Pump It Up"! Pump It Up has 3 versions, with the difference being the photoshoots. The red Version A contains a retro look, the yellow Version B contains a university student look, and the blue Version C contains the Golden Air pilots. I preordered all 3 versions from Makestar, which I blogged about and shared my pulls here. Below I'll do an unboxing post of all 3 versions.

Packaging

Here are the front covers of all 3 versions. They each came in a clear plastic wrap. The design is rather simple, but the "Pump It Up" design is embossed adding a nice touch. The material of the cover also feels rather nice, like it has a velvet texture.

The tops of all the albums have this same barcode indicating Golden Child's second single, however I can't decode the barcode number used.

These Pump It Up albums are much smaller than Golden Child's previous releases. Here is a comparison of all Golden Child albums on my shelf.

The backsides of the albums are simplistic as well, with Golden Child's original logo embossed in the center, and the tracklist embossed on the bottom.

The formatting of this single is a photobook style packaging. Each photobook contains 60 pages.

Photobooks

All 3 photobook include a group photo attached to the back cover. It is perforated, so it seems like you can tear it off and use it like a postcard.

The inside cover has this cute Pump It Up design.

This is a bit different from Golden Child's previous albums: the Thanks To message is at the beginning of the photobook, and only includes a group message, and no individual member messages. I'll blog about the actual contents of each photobook individually in the next sections.

The last page, inside the back cover, and backside of the postcard all have that same cute Pump It Up design.

Surprisingly the design of the CD is quite basic.

Version A Photobook

Each photobook begins with a group photo, which is a different image from the postcard and poster. There is also 1 page per song, which includes lyrics and song credits.

The remaining photos are individual member shots, with 1 photo per page.

There is a subtle mix of layouts; this is my favorite layout. And I am in love with everything about Jibeom's look!

Other layouts have a bit of wasted space. But I do like this set of photos; it looks like Daeyeol is staring at Jangjun and I like how they have LPs matching the retro theme.

Each photobook contains 5 photos per member. Some of these outfits took me awhile to get used to, but they've grown on me and the outfits fit the retro concept well.

This may be one of my absolute favorite eras for Seungmin! And Jaehyun is adorable as always~!

Towards the end there are 2 pages for album credits.

Version B Photoshoot

My thoughts on the formatting of the photobook were all described above in Version A, so here and for Version C I'll focus more on just the photos in these photobooks. Here is the group photo.

Bomin's inflexibility while crossing his legs is always really cute!

I absolutely love the concept of this photobook: university students ready for fall. If it weren't for the pilot concept which is exactly my aesthetic (branded uniforms), this would definitely be my favorite concept of the era.

I love Tag's playfulness in this photobook! And again Jibeom has stolen the show for me for this photobook as well. His fluffy hair, cream sweater, sweater paws, overall just so soft!

Seungmin is so cute! He looks like an elementary school student waiting in line.

After Jibeom, Jaehyun is a close second with his soft look as well!

Version C Photobook

Here is the group photo from the Golden Air photobook.

This is my favorite version out of the 3! I love the details of this Golden Air brand, with the wing badge on both the hat and suit, completing the uniform.

Furthermore, I love how they're actually on a commercial airplane and with suitcases, really going all the way with this concept.

And I love how they went all over the plane for this photoshoot, like Tag in the cockpit! And like I've been saying for the other 2 versions, Jibeom once again has stolen the show in this version. Uniforms like this suit him so much, and his blond hair styled like this kills me every time!

Even a photo in the galley~! And suited up Jaehyun is rivaling Jibeom!

I'm really happy that Woollim ended up selling the Golden Air badge. It's nice having a memento from these gorgeous stage outfits.

Album Inclusions

Each album comes with 1 AR card out of 10 and 2 photocards out of 60. Yes, that's right, there's an increase of total photocards but a decrease of photocards included in each album from Take A Leap. These inclusions can either be spread throughout the photobook or all stuck together like above.

There is 1 AR card per member, and the photo is from the Golden Air shoot. These cards all have a glossy finish.

The backside of the AR card contains the member's printed autograph and message. The bottom right also contains a unique code (hence why I'm covering them with my Take A Leap straps^^) - note that this code is unique per card, not just per member. To use this code, you need to install the app "araphoto" to enter the code, and that will unlock that member's video message. Unfortunately I couldn't install this app on my Samsung, so I'll just reply on those who posted the videos on Twitter...

There are 20 photocards from the retro shoot, 20 from the university shoot, and 20 from the pilot shoot, and 2 per member from each shoot. I really like how this time the photocards are from each respective shoot; it makes for a really pretty set once complete.

Each backside has that member's printed autograph and message; each message is different for each photocard (ie. there are in total 6 different messages per member). I like how the backs have the color associated with that version. The photocards have a matte finish.

First Press Posters

There are 3 external first press posters from this era; 1 from each photoshoot.

These group photos are different from those included in their respective albums.

It looks like Woollim is downsizing their poster dimensions. Like Take A Leap, Rocket Punch's Blue Punch, and Lovelyz' Unforgettable, Pump It Up's posters also have dimensions 610mm by 440mm. Even worse, these 3 posters are also a bit grainy, going back to Golden Child's grainy Gol-Cha! posters. For anyone curious, this image is the same one used for the photocard included with Golden Child's Golden Air badge.

Tracklist

This single contains 3 tracks:

1. Pump It Up - This song is created by MosPick, who also created "Damdadi", "All Day", and "Let Me"! This title track definitely shows that Golden Child is back to their refreshing, bright, energetic concept! And while the line distribution isn't the best (main vocals get majority as expected, Jaehyun getting 1 line that gets overshadowed by Tag's rap), I'm content with it because other members besides the main vocals get the killing points (in my opinion), therefore sharing the spotlight more among the members.
2. 그 자식 - (That Guy) is created by the same team who created "H.E.R"! This is a beautiful ballad that balances out the refreshing feeling from the other tracks on this single.
3. 너의 뒤에서 - (Lean on Me) is another upbeat track to round out this bright and energetic album. This track is definitely overshadowed for me personally just because I love the title track so much.

Overall, I'm beyond ecstatic that Golden Child is back to their original bright concept. And even more, that they're continuing their branded clothing with the Golden Air concept! But besides all of this, it's been a really joyful era with Golden Child's second music show win and again more growing achievements. I can't wait to see what Golden Child will do next! 

Golden Child: Golden Air Badge Review

Golden Child recently completed promotions for their second single Pump It Up. One of their concepts for this album included a pilot theme, complete with Golden Air branding and a Golden Air badge. Woollim held preorders via Everline for their Golden Air badge from October 16th, 2020 to October 20th, 2020 here. This is the first time Woollim has released Golden Child branded goods randomly; they're usually released within the official fanclub welcome kit or as merchandise from fanmeetings or concerts. I blogged about ordering the badge here.

The badge came in a thick construction paper packaging, with the Golden Air logo embossed in the center.

The backside contains the product sticker along with the Woollim authentication sticker.

Open the flap on the side to reveal the contents of the packaging.

Inside the packaging were the Golden Air badge and photocard.

The badge came pinned to a piece of construction paper.

The badge is held together by 2 metal butterfly clutch backings.

Here are how the backsides of both the badge and backing look like.

The pin is really high quality! It's made of metal, is quite heavy (4 ounces), and here you can see it's pretty thick. The dimensions are about 3" by 1" by 0.0625".

The badge is so pretty~ I can't get over it!

As for the photocard, the image is the same as this Pump It Up poster.

The backside has the Golden Air logo. The photocard has a glossy finish. Unfortunately the edge of the photocard arrived a bit damaged.

Overall, I'm really happy that Woollim did end up selling this badge, and that it is so high quality! For now I'll display both the packaging and the badge on my shelf, but I hope one day I can wear it at a Golden Child event^^

Ordering My Golden Child Golden Air Badge on Everline vs. Kpoptown

Woollim's collaboration with Everline looks like it won't be stopping anytime soon, especially with the announcement of Golden Child's Golden Air Badge on pre-order here from October 16th, 2020 at 1PM KST to October 20th, 2020 at 11:59PM KST. Shipping starts on the 26th. Woollim has never dropped any surprise merch like this; usually Golden Child branded goods like patches, pins, wappens, are released through concerts and official Goldenness fankits.

I'm a sucker for Golden Child branded goods, so of course I instantly wanted this. This airline badge comes with a group photocard (the same image as the album poster from the airline shoot) and paper packaging with the old Golden Child logo on the front. The product price is $16.27 USD, but with the ridiculous total weight of 3kg (product weight and box weight are supposedly 1.5kg each), shipping to the US became $60.80 for a grand total of $77.08.

Desperate times call for desperate measures. I was not going to spend $77.08 on a tiny piece of metal (I know my limits). Kpoptown put up the item listing on October 18th here, set at $21.90 USD and shipping can either be K-packet ($12.90) or DHL ($19.00) to the US. Kpoptown also opened up pre-orders for Lovelyz' Deep Forest concert goods, whereas Ktown4u only sold Golden Child's NOW concert merch. I'm not sure why Ktown4u stopped selling Woollim's Everline goods and now Kpoptown is. Anyways, I had to choose where to order, decide which site was the lesser of two evils. Everline is notoriously known for ripping off customers on international shipping (you can read my experience with them for Future and Past concert goods here and NOW concert goods here), and Kpoptown shorted my Re-boot order and never refunded me or shipped out the rest of my order (my experience here).

I ordered the badge from Kpoptown on October 19th, along with the last Infinite 2018 Season's Greetings that they had in stock, at 50% off. The only option to ship both items together was DHL for $33.00. Shortly after my purchase, there were 105 badges left in stock. I checked again in the afternoon of the 20th, and there were only 5 badges left in stock.

Honestly I'm still skeptical. I checked other preorders on Kpoptown such as Men's Health with Jangjun on the cover, Lovelyz ontact concert goods, CIX, and Super M, and all had 100 items in stock. It just seemed weird to me that so many items were stagnant at 100. And even stranger, they have 993 copies of Nam Woohyun's limited version of A New Journey when it's sold out everywhere else.

Kpoptown sent me an email notification that my package was shipped on October 29th, and my package arrived on November 2nd!

To my pleasant surprise, I did receive both the Golden Air badge and Infinite's 2018 Season's Greetings, and both were well packaged. A thin layer of bubblewrap lined the season's greetings while large air packets filled the rest of the space. I'm really relieved that I have this beautiful badge on hand but as for trusting Kpoptown...they still have a long way to go before I can ever fully trust them again.

When I originally posted this, I had said that both items arrived in good condition. But now that I'm actually looking at the season's greetings, unfortunately one of the edges arrived ripped. But I'll let it go, especially since I got this for 50% off.

I'll have unboxing posts for both items coming up!