Since I think I'm pretty caught up with my Infinite collecting for a while (where are you, reasonably-priced "Infinite Only" and "Write..." Woohyun photocards?), I am going to expand into my second bias group, Astro!
Even though I got into Astro at the tail end of their Dream pt. 01 promotions, most of the variety shows that I watched and got to know Astro from were recorded during their Autumn Story promotions, for their title track "Confession (고백)"
I only started listening to Astro on Spotify, and since Spotify only has their Spring Up and Winter Dream albums (but as of August 15th, all of their albums are now available! So give them a listen if my constant tweeting has piqued your curiosity at all!), I never listened to Confession and would only hear it in snippets whenever the MCs would introduce the guests.
To start it all off, I think Confession has to be my second favorite Astro title track, right after Baby. The song definitely has an anime opening feel, given the whole animation/imaginary school-aged boyfriend concept.
It doesn't deviate much from Astro's original concept of "bubbly and refreshing" but this is less "bubblegum pop" and more "rock" oriented in terms of musical composition; this can be seen in the theme of the MV which features less neon colors and more muted color schemes and in the sound of the actual song, Astro was probably going for a slightly more mature concept in their 3rd promotion. I was probably hooked within 5 seconds of hearing the actual song just by listening to the intro.
The funky riff of the guitar throughout the song (minus the chorus) is catchy and quite pleasant to listen to and hearing Eunwoo's voice in a lower range has me swooning.
Anyways, that was just me trying to justify my purchase of this album. I have been debating about getting this for a while, and I was stuck between trying to buy the signed version for a cheap price, just buying the photocards, buying the first pressed single member posters, or buying a brand new album with the first pressed posters from kpopmart.
So I practically jumped on the person who wanted to sell her copy of the album along with 1 Moonbin and 1 Eunwoo photocard for $17 shipped within the USA. Seeing as though I've been comparing prices and have seen Eunwoo and Moonbin Autumn Story PCs sell for about $11 each, I thought that this was a steal. I'm hoping to re-sell the album and continue to look for the signed version, and maybe even get myself a Jinjin photocard. Although, I could always just buy the Kpoptown one and get all of the pre-order posters, which I'm still eyeing.
Onto the review!
I have to admit, I was a little disappointed with the packaging. The seller did ship the album in a bubble mailer, but didn't add any additional bubble wrap around the album. The album is in the format of an actual book, and while there weren't any additional damages, I still would've appreciated the extra precaution.
The seller did include 1 free pre-order poster of Moonbin, which I was very glad to receive since it wasn't mentioned in the original sale post!
However, the packaging was more lacking for that than the album. Since it is a poster and it was shipped folded, I was hoping that it would have been backed by cardboard to prevent any bending while in transit.
In the picture, you can clearly see the creases along the edges of the poster. While the damage isn't anything like a tear or an actual fold, it does impact how the poster looks when it's opened up.
(and peep my Yeolgrina and Sonagi calendars, along with a small snippet of my collection!)
And here are the photocards! The album comes with 2 regular photocards and 1 ID photo, which the seller did not include.
Each version (red and orange) comes with its own different set of 2 photocards. Since I bought the red version, it came with the red versions of Eunwoo and Moonbin's photocards. There are 2 different photocards, per member, per version of the album, meaning that there is a grand total of 24 photocards for their Autumn Story album (12 for the red ver., 12 for the orange ver.).
Although I received 2 photocards that I do really like, I wouldn't mind going forward to collect their other versions either.
And there you go!
My takeaway from this experience is to ask more questions about how the seller plans on packaging the item before sending it to me. I'm sure she did not intend to have the poster crease, but since you are getting a poster with the intention of displaying it, I wish that there would be fewer cosmetic flaws regarding the appearance.
Since I really did purchase this only for the photocards, I plan on reselling the album for a significantly cheaper price just to take it off my hands. It's not so much as making a profit, as it is just trying to be smart about spending my money; plus, I can use the money "I get back" to continue my search for their other Autumn Story versions. :)
Even though I got into Astro at the tail end of their Dream pt. 01 promotions, most of the variety shows that I watched and got to know Astro from were recorded during their Autumn Story promotions, for their title track "Confession (고백)"
I only started listening to Astro on Spotify, and since Spotify only has their Spring Up and Winter Dream albums (but as of August 15th, all of their albums are now available! So give them a listen if my constant tweeting has piqued your curiosity at all!), I never listened to Confession and would only hear it in snippets whenever the MCs would introduce the guests.
To start it all off, I think Confession has to be my second favorite Astro title track, right after Baby. The song definitely has an anime opening feel, given the whole animation/imaginary school-aged boyfriend concept.
It doesn't deviate much from Astro's original concept of "bubbly and refreshing" but this is less "bubblegum pop" and more "rock" oriented in terms of musical composition; this can be seen in the theme of the MV which features less neon colors and more muted color schemes and in the sound of the actual song, Astro was probably going for a slightly more mature concept in their 3rd promotion. I was probably hooked within 5 seconds of hearing the actual song just by listening to the intro.
The funky riff of the guitar throughout the song (minus the chorus) is catchy and quite pleasant to listen to and hearing Eunwoo's voice in a lower range has me swooning.
Anyways, that was just me trying to justify my purchase of this album. I have been debating about getting this for a while, and I was stuck between trying to buy the signed version for a cheap price, just buying the photocards, buying the first pressed single member posters, or buying a brand new album with the first pressed posters from kpopmart.
So I practically jumped on the person who wanted to sell her copy of the album along with 1 Moonbin and 1 Eunwoo photocard for $17 shipped within the USA. Seeing as though I've been comparing prices and have seen Eunwoo and Moonbin Autumn Story PCs sell for about $11 each, I thought that this was a steal. I'm hoping to re-sell the album and continue to look for the signed version, and maybe even get myself a Jinjin photocard. Although, I could always just buy the Kpoptown one and get all of the pre-order posters, which I'm still eyeing.
Onto the review!
I have to admit, I was a little disappointed with the packaging. The seller did ship the album in a bubble mailer, but didn't add any additional bubble wrap around the album. The album is in the format of an actual book, and while there weren't any additional damages, I still would've appreciated the extra precaution.
The seller did include 1 free pre-order poster of Moonbin, which I was very glad to receive since it wasn't mentioned in the original sale post!
However, the packaging was more lacking for that than the album. Since it is a poster and it was shipped folded, I was hoping that it would have been backed by cardboard to prevent any bending while in transit.
In the picture, you can clearly see the creases along the edges of the poster. While the damage isn't anything like a tear or an actual fold, it does impact how the poster looks when it's opened up.
(and peep my Yeolgrina and Sonagi calendars, along with a small snippet of my collection!)
And here are the photocards! The album comes with 2 regular photocards and 1 ID photo, which the seller did not include.
Each version (red and orange) comes with its own different set of 2 photocards. Since I bought the red version, it came with the red versions of Eunwoo and Moonbin's photocards. There are 2 different photocards, per member, per version of the album, meaning that there is a grand total of 24 photocards for their Autumn Story album (12 for the red ver., 12 for the orange ver.).
Although I received 2 photocards that I do really like, I wouldn't mind going forward to collect their other versions either.
And there you go!
My takeaway from this experience is to ask more questions about how the seller plans on packaging the item before sending it to me. I'm sure she did not intend to have the poster crease, but since you are getting a poster with the intention of displaying it, I wish that there would be fewer cosmetic flaws regarding the appearance.
Since I really did purchase this only for the photocards, I plan on reselling the album for a significantly cheaper price just to take it off my hands. It's not so much as making a profit, as it is just trying to be smart about spending my money; plus, I can use the money "I get back" to continue my search for their other Autumn Story versions. :)
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