Lovelyz: Sanctuary 5th Mini Album (Normal Version) Unboxing Review

Lovelyz has made their comeback on November 26, 2018 with fifth mini album Sanctuary! This mini album has a limited version and a normal version. I previously gave a brief intro, wrote about ordering both versions, and displayed the exterior first press posters in my limited version unboxing post here. I'll be unboxing the normal version in this blog post and will include a breakdown of the tracklist.

The normal version is packaged as a paperback book. In my opinion out of all of Lovelyz' albums, this album has the worst packaging for two reasons. One is because the paperback front cover naturally curls upward (whereas their albums of similar size usually have a hardcover) the other because the included folded poster is rather thick to be slipped into such a small book. But regardless, the contents of the album are superb as always!

A group photo taken from Lovelyz' bridal photoshoot shines on the front cover. The front cover is rather simplistic for an album cover, as the bird (Lovelyz' new logo for the era) and the artist name are subtly embossed in silver in the corner. The front cover has the same dimensions as most of Lovelyz' other albums (Fall in Lovelyz, Heal, etc.) but Sanctuary is a bit thinner at 0.3125".

The back cover and spine are silver, matching the highly reflective and metallic finish of the front cover. The tracklist and a motif matching the indie theme are also printed on the back.

The photobook has 80 pages. The first portion is dedicated to the wedding photoshoot.

There are mostly all individual photos of each member in their elegant wedding gowns.

The photos are laid out in different formats for variation.

There are also page numbers in the bottom inner corners.

This portion wraps up with a two-page spread of the girls, which is the same image as the front cover. (Is it weird that I really like this photo I took...Lovelyz album while listening to Golden Child and wearing Woohyun's ring^^).

The second portion contains the other photoshoot.

While it's been awhile since Lovelyz first stepped away from their cute and innocent style, I'm still blown away with how mature they look with every comeback, especially Yein!

There is only one two-page spread that isn't a group photo, and it's dedicated to Jisoo! This photo is absolutely gorgeous, especially with the soft background and lighting.

Again, majority of these photos are individual shots, the pages have different layouts, and the page numbers persist at the inner corners near the spine.

The last two pages of this section contain a group photo. Both group photos are also used as the two exterior first press posters. Seems like there weren't many group photos from these photoshoots.

The next section includes one page per track for the lyrics and song credits. The first track also includes a beautiful photo of Jiae's bouquet.

There are seven pages for the song credits section.

The following three pages are for the Thanks To section.

The last page has the album credits. The backside of the back cover has a cardstock backing to securely house the CD.

The disc design is simplistic, with the dove logo on top and album title on the bottom.

The three inclusions were all placed together in between pages 56 and 57. All of the inclusions within the normal version are different from the inclusions within the limited version.

The normal version includes a matte pastel pink bookmark made of card stock with the new Lovelyz logo embossed. There is a perforated slit separating the bird from the leaf in its beak for you to slip pages in between to act as a bookmark. The backside is white. The dimensions are 2" by 1.5".

Also included is one random member photocard out of eight, all of which are different from the limited version photocards. I pulled Sujeong. I really don't know how they chose this photo to blow up as a photocard, because it's rather blurry.

The backside has Sujeong's printed message and autograph. The design on the backside (leaf motif and album info printed on the top and bottom) is also the same as the limited version photocards. These cards are glossy and have the same dimensions and roundness as the photocards from A New Trilogy, R U Ready?, and the limited version of Sanctuary.

The last inclusion is a random folded matte poster about four times the size of the album. There are two versions, one from each photoshoot.

Lastly, several first press albums from both the limited and normal version contain a "special Polaroid film", or a random Polaroid of the members. Neither of my albums had one.

This mini album contains 7 tracks, with Lovelyz promoting "Like U" and "Rewind" along with title "Lost N Found".

1. Never Ending - is the intro track. In my opinion, the first half of the track sounds similar to "Candy Jelly Love" and the second half sounds completely different, but much similar to the next track.
2. 찾아가세요 (Lost N Found) - is the title, another brilliant piece with lyrics by SWEETUNE! This song has the classic Lovelyz feel and I've been putting it on repeat because I love it so much. While the choreography seems to be lacking, I do like how they've made handheld mics a crucial part of the performance; it adds a nice touch!
3. Like U - is created by the same team (1Take, TAK, AARAN) as Lovelyz' songs "Twinkle" and "Shining★Star".
4. Rewind - Lovelyz has been performing this track during their follow-up promotions. I'm really happy Golden Child's Joochan mentioned his love for this song (since the two groups were promoting at the same time so they heard each other's performances often!) and sang along during a solo vlive.
5. Rain - is a slow ballad.
6. 백일몽 (Daydream) - Babysoul participated in the lyrics for this track! This is the most upbeat track of the ones not being promoted.
7. 꽃점 (Floral) - is a beautiful pop ballad that sounds like it'd suit really well as a drama OST!

The tracklist as a whole is not my favorite; I usually like Lovelyz' more poppy and upbeat tracks, but the focus of this album seems to be on ballads.

Overall, the highlight of this album for me is the wedding pictorial. These photos are absolutely gorgeous and show how much the girls have matured from their student days in "Candy Jelly Love" era.