Golden Child: Wish 3rd Mini Album Review

2018 has been a big year for Golden Child, and it's only getting better with the release of their third mini album Wish on October 24th. This will be Golden Child's third release this year, following mini album Miracle at the end of January and single Goldenness at the beginning of July. Golden Child recently held their Fanclub Founding Ceremony on Sunday, October 14th where they announced this comeback. I think the announcement of this comeback was supposed to be weeks earlier, with the video teasers announcing the original targeted release date at the bottom. On Monday at midnight KST just a few hours after the fan meeting, Woollim released the comeback teaser video (dated for 9/27). Woollim released the album preview on Tuesday. On Wednesday, individual photos of all 10 members were released. The next day, 5 individual trailer movies were released (dated for 10/8). And On Friday, the remaining individual trailer movies were released (also dated for 10/8). On Saturday, Woollim released the second set of concept photos. On Sunday, the short version music video teaser was released (dated for 10/19). On Monday, Woollim released the long version music video teaser (also dated for 10/19). The official music video was released on Wednesday at 6PM KST, and to my surprise, dated for 10/22. Often times the date on the video doesn't match the release date, but 2.5 week difference seems a bit off. I guess Woollim postponed the teaser releases but did aim for this comeback date? With the comeback announcement only 10 days before the album release, Goldenness are being showered with so many high quality teasers everyday leading up to the comeback.

I shared my ordering experience for this album here, as well as the photocards and book in books that I pulled. I also want to apologize for the poor lighting in some of these photos; I was too excited to wait for a time with good natural lighting.

This album comes in 2 versions. Version A is on the top and Version B is on the bottom. All the photos in these albums were taken over the two days in LA after Golden Child's schedule at KCON LA. Knowing that American Goldenness were the last fans that Golden Child saw and interacted with before this photoshoot makes these albums even more special!

The spine lists the album title. The exterior feels like it's made up of the same material as those paper drawing pads. These albums are also quite large at 11.875" by 8.75" by 0.3125".

The back cover displays the tracklist. Depending on the version, the image reflects that version's album cover photoshoot.

The photobook has 112 pages. The first page has the album title.

The next pages contain a 2-page spread of the group. The design of these albums is like a fashion photobook with a street fashion concept. Both versions contain photos from two photoshoots. The first photoshoot is from the cover of Version A and was shot in an urban area of LA (more specifically, the cover shot was taken in front of the Federal Courthouse on Spring Street), while the second photoshoot is from the cover of Version B and shot in an industrial area of LA.

The next 2 pages contain the album credits. Here you can continue seeing that Version A has a white theme, while Version B has an orange theme.

The following pages list the song credits, along with the page numbers for the lyrics pages.

The song lyrics are spread throughout the photobook and are always on the same pages in each version. I like how it's labelled as "SCENE 01", "SCENE 02", etc. It's also really nice having the lyrics on such a large layout so that we can learn the words and sing along!

Majority of the photos are individual shots. I can't get over that photo of Jaehyun!

All pages with individual photos contain "GOLDEN CHILD M03" (3rd mini album) on the top left page and "WISH" on the top right page, with the page number printed at the bottom.

It's so beautiful how they captured the LA sun setting in the background!

Bomin and Jibeom's photos here from Version A are so powerful! And Jaehyun on a train was such a beautiful concept.

There is always only one photo per page (unless if it's a 2-page spread), so it's really nice seeing all the photos so large and in such high quality.

The page layouts differ too, like how here one photo is overlapping another and using it as a frame.

There are also a few 2-page spreads that showcase a member's photo over two pages. I absolutely love this photo of Seungmin, but it's a bit unfortunate how he's a bit disproportionate due to the binding.

There are 6 pages dedicated to the Thanks To section. These pages are the same in both versions, of course except for the color schemes.

I love the beginning of the group Thanks To: "Golden Child's father, CEO Lee Jungyeop".

The following pages is a 2-page spread of the group from behind. This is the only other group photo in the album.

The very last page houses the CD.

Here are the designs of the discs, matching the color themes of their respective album versions.

This mini album contains 7 tracks. I'm so proud that Jangjun and Tag worked on the lyrics for all 6 tracks (excluding the intro)! The English titles for these songs are a bit unsettling for me, so I've put the translations of the Korean titles instead.

1. Wish - is the intro track leading up to the title. I'm surprised that the composer for the intro is different than the composer for the title, but it still flows well into the title track.
2. Genie - is the title, co-written by SEION, who also worked on Golden Child's "Thank You" and Infinite's "왜 날 (Why Me)" within Woollim. As these are very slow ballads, I'm excited hearing the range of talent SEION's has also writing such an upbeat pop song that fits so well with Golden Child's musical color.
3. 너 (You) - is another track by SWEETUNE, who also worked on Golden Child's tracks "기적 (Miracle)", "너라고 (It's U)", and "Lady"! I'm so happy Woollim is continuing to work with SWEETUNE, as their songs always fit their artists so well.
4. 너만 보인다 (I See You) - is another track by Woollim's own composer Razer(Strike), who also worked on "I'm Falling"! UPDATE 20181130: today I learned of a rumor that Golden Child will follow up with promotions for this song AND that Jaehyun has no lines on this track. This is beginning to be like "Lady" all over again, where Bomin and Jaehyun had no lines and were always in the back for the choreography, but at least on October 20th they performed "Lady" with new choreography where Bomin and Jaehyun are the center. I guess we'll have to see where Jaehyun is for this choreography. This was honestly becoming my favorite track of the album, but I can't even listen to it anymore, knowing they're doing Jaehyun wrong again.
5. 들어봐 줄래 (Listen) - Golden Child performed this track for the first time at their latest fan meeting, a song dedicated to Goldenness! I'm really happy that this is the B-track that Golden Child has been promoting along with Genie; it's a beautiful pop ballad and after discussing with my friend, concluded that its matching choreography is like a modern, interpretive dance piece.
6. 넌 모를 거야 (YTMOB) - It took me the longest to appreciate this track; the style is just so different from what I'm used to from Golden Child! But the chorus is definitely a bop and I love it now.
7. Would U Be My - Both this track and "Listen" were co-composed by MARCO, who also worked on Lovelyz' "Fallin'".

All the songs on this album have a large genre range, and besides "Genie", the other tracks don't sound like the classic Golden Child sound, but it just shows that they're able to grow and expand their vocal color. To be honest, this is my least favorite album from Golden Child's discography, but after putting the album on repeat a few times, I've grown to love all of these songs.

Each album comes with 1 photocard out of 20, slipped somewhere within the photobook; there are 2 photocards per member, denoted as a white version and an orange version.

I believe all images were taken while the boys were taking their photoshoots in LA, and it looks like the white version is from the Version A photoshoot while the orange version is from the Version B photoshoot except for Donghyun's and Joochan's photocards where both images are from the same shoot.

The photocards have a glossy finish, just like the Goldenness album photocards. While these cards may look more polished than Golden Child's previous matte cards, these glossy cards seem much more prone to scratches and dents if you were to buy or trade these cards. I ran into this issue while buying several Goldenness cards, to my great disappointment. Here's a comparison of a glossy card versus a matte card.

The backside denotes the photocard version based on the color and includes the member's printed autograph and message. These photocards have the same dimensions and roundness of the corners as Goldenness.

Each album also comes with 1 in 10 "book in books", which is basically a mini photobooklet of a member. The book in book is always placed at the very end of the photobook.

The front and back covers of the book in books are all the same. These book are all 4.125" by 5.875" and have 4 colored sheets stapled at the spine.

There are a total of 12 pages of photos in each book. Here I'll reveal all the pages for Daeyeol, Y, Seungmin, Jibeom, and Joochan. As I collect more books, I hope to share them all on a future post!

I like how the photo layout is unique per member, mixing up the formatting.

All these book in book photoshoots were taken sometime after Golden Child's time in LA.

This concept matches well with the mature, sophisticated concept given off in the regular photobook.

Why must that photo of Jibeom be made so small?!

Seriously, again with the small Jibeom photos and the wasted space.

And here are the last pages of the book in books.

I also briefly got my hands on Jangjun's book. Each page lists the member's name and "WISH" on the left margin, and "M03" (3rd mini album), "GOLDEN CHILD", and the page number on the right margin.

This era also comes with 2 external first press posters, which are the same image as the album covers.

The poster dimensions are the same as Gol-Cha! and the image quality is still a little grainy, which matches the rustic look and is no where near as grainy as the Gol-Cha! posters.

Overall, like with every album, this album holds such significance to me especially because the main photoshoots took place in LA shortly after KCON. While Woollim continually teased a dark concept for this comeback, I'm eternally grateful for Golden Child to continue their youthful, bright, and energetic concept. And lastly, I'm so happy to see that Golden Child is continuing their own branding with the music video based at "Golden Factory" and one of the stage outfits being Golden Child-branded jumpsuits. It's been a busy year for Golden Child and I'm so happy they were able to squeeze in this comeback though I really hope they'll get some much deserved rest!