Lovelyz: Girls' Invasion First Album Review

Woollim finally debuted their much anticipated first girl group in November 2014: Lovelyz! Though many used to refer Woollim's girl trainees as the Woollim Girls who have made a few appearances before their debut (such as Infinite's dance partners during their "Man in Love" performance at the 2013 KBS Gayo Daejun and Mijoo as the lead in Infinite's "Last Romeo" music video), and a few even debuted as solo artists with singles released from 2011 to 2013. Their album title Girls' Invasion is quite fitting, since this is Woollim's first girl group where Infinite, Nell and Tasty dominate. As an Inspirit and therefore Woollim fan, I think I'm going to subsequently like Lovelyz (though not nearly as much as for Infinite) as well. I also will refer to some things with Infinite in mind.

I bought my album in Burnaby, Canada at KR Multimedia for $22CAD and buying this album included 10% off any poster, but I decided not to buy one. This album does come with two poster types, one being a group photo in a classroom setting while another being a grid format that are similar to school photos. I usually don't like grid posters and prefer group photos in a unique setting, but for some reason it was the opposite with these posters; the grid one is really cool because it does look like the members' school photos.

The album is the same size as most of Infinite's albums, and looks elegant in its simplicity. The front is matte white with a sparkly red fancy Lovelyz logo. This is all very reminiscent of Infinite's debut album...a simple white album with a sparkly red logo and "Invasion" in the title.

The back cover is just as simple, with a simpler logo. Both sides also have the wording in the sparkly red.

The format of this album is very similar to that of Infinite H's Fly High. Inside is the photobook on the bottom and case for the disc and photocards on the top.

The case looks similar to the album cover, with its reflective logo.

The backside includes the tracklist. The first five tracks are new Lovelyz songs while the remaining four are the pre-released singles when some of the members debuted as solo artists before. Though I thought the title was weird at first, I really do love their title track, "Candy Jelly Love," since it's just so catchy and fun; it did its job well as a hook song to grab my attention. I just wish the members would have better line distribution. Also their secondary title song, "Good Night Like Yesterday," is a beautiful ballad that also has Sunggyu in the music video, reminiscent of his vampire days. Also for the 5th track, "Getaway," honestly is a song I don't like (and I thought being Woollim biased would never have me dislike a Woollim song), but it's just kind of creepy with the "my lies" chants. And my last thought, the 7th track (that features Dongwoo!), after my friend told me, originally it was sang by Babysoul and then Woollim trainee Yoo Jia, but she left and now it's Babysoul and Kei.

Inside the case is like a folder to hold the photocards; it's like a school folder, perfect for their innocent schoolgirl concept. Because there's this folder especially for the photocards, I feel like they belong here rather than in my photocard binder...an empty folder flap would feel weird. The disc is attached by a plastic pentagon holder. I really like this CD holder design, because the CD is sturdy here yet it's still easy to take out the CD.

Underneath the disc has a pretty design as well.

The album comes with two gorgeous photocards. The photocards are really of postcard size and quality, which is no surprise with Woollim creating larger and larger photocards. They're matte photocards with the name of the member at the bottom left. I got Sujeong's and Yein's. There's one photocard per member, for a total of eight.

The backside of the photocard is simple. On my Yein one, there were subtle print marks with a thick horizontal line and "Woollim" repeating on the top left...I guess the photocard was placed on top of other freshly printed parts of the album?

The photobook is very thick, with 54 pages. The cover is the same as the poster design. The logo both on the front and back covers have that gorgeous reflective tint.

The photos overall remind me of L's Bravo Viewtiful: some artsy photos or random objects or of different angles, some behind-the-scenes photos from the photoshoot, and then some typical photos of the members. There are only a few pages with the girls' names, but other than that there aren't any profiles of them. Looking at the photobook, I'm pointing out who's who and trying to put a name to a face...this is just like me starting out with Infinite~ Ahh, good times.

The last few pages are for the lyrics, thanks to, and credits. For the song that features Dongwoo, I'm so happy to see that Dongwoo wrote the rap for it!