Orange Caramel Lipstick / ラムのラブソング Lum no Love Song - Single Review (CD Only Edition)

My goal in 2022 is to post more CD reviews on Marzipan Wonderland and that is exactly what I'm blogging about today. Decided to go with one of my favourite groups Orange Caramel and we will be looking at one of the Japanese singles - Lipstick / ラムのラブソング Lum no Love Song! This was one of the first Japanese singles I brought so it is quite special to me. Oh how naïve I was back then and knew nothing about the tricks of collecting J-Pop.

Orange Caramel Lipstick / ラムのラブソング Lum no Love Song CD Only Edition

Lipstick / ラムのラブソング Lum no Love Song is Korean girl group Orange Caramel's second Japanese single and was released in December 2012. The single was released in 7 editions: 

• CD+DVD Lipstick Edition
• CD+DVD ラムのラブソング Lum no Love Song Edition
• CD+DVD Variety Edition
• CD Only Edition
• mu-mo CD Edition - Lizzy Picture Label
• mu-mo CD Edition - Nana Picture Label
• mu-mo CD Edition - Raina Picture Label

I brought my CD Only Edition when it came out from YesAsia and I got that edition as it was the cheapest. This was back in the day when I could only afford the CD Only editions but honestly I prefer collecting those as you always get bonus tracks such as B-sides or instrumentals that aren't on the DVD editions. The CD Only Edition came with the following:

• CD - 6 track single
• Jewel Case
• Lyrics booklet
• Photocard

Now this single is one of those weird ones that is portrait style (I guess I'll call it that?) and I'm on the fence about these. Like it's unique but doesn't match the standard jewel case direction. So I'm stumped on my overall opinion of them. One positive of this view is that you get a full length photo of the members which I love. It's cute that they took the table tennis concept from the MV and used for the Japanese single concept. Yes I'm saying table tennis as that's what we refer to it here and I used to play it as a club sport and at school so I prefer that term.

That back cover is situated around the normal direction and features a photo of the table tennis bats. Would love if my bat looked like this however it would be legal to use in a game. The track listing for the CD Edition is listed on the back along with some production credit information. This edition does not have an OBI and I brought mine brand new so I know it definitely didn't come with one. Kind of boring as I love collecting them.

The interior of the single is rather boring with some basic colours on each section. The CD is probably the most interesting part with the unique text font. This matches the text on the front cover and I like the choice of placement it on the disc. It just fits better at that angle and it wouldn't look as cool if it was straight across. Lyrics booklet is quite bleh with just the song lyrics and has no extra pages or photos.

Onto the track listing which features two Japanese versions of the group's Korean songs as well as a new Japanese single. The latter is actually a cover of single Matsutani Yuuko's 1981 song of the same name. Their debut Japanese single was actually a cover as well and thankfully we finally got original songs on their first Japanese album. My favourite track on this single is ミルクシェイク Milkshake which I prefer over the original Korean version and ラムのラブソング Lum no Love Song would be the runner up. One of the main reasons I wanted this single was for the instrumentals as when Lipstick was released in Korean, the album did not contain the instrumentals. So it was great when this got announced with both instrumentals for Lipstick and Milkshake. The CD Only Edition of this single contains the following track listing:

1. Lipstick [Japanese Ver.]
2. ラムのラブソング Lum no Love Song
3. ミルクシェイク Milkshake [Japanese Ver.]
4. Lipstick [Japanese Ver.] (Instrumental)
5. ラムのラブソング Lum no Love Song (Instrumental)
6. ミルクシェイク Milkshake [Japanese Ver.] (Instrumental)

Photocard wise I got Nana's card which I recall being happy with as she was my bias in the group for a long time. I always swapped between the girls and right now it's actually Raina! The Japanese photocards from Orange Caramel and AFTERSCHOOL are always amazing and a larger square size. I believe this release had about 4 photocards (3 member ones and one group) but I couldn't find too much confirmation online.

AS I mentioned earlier, I got this edition of Lipstick / ラムのラブソング Lum no Love Song as it was the one I could afford back in the day. I had just started working regularly and finally had an income to get into collecting. A few years back I brought the CD+DVD ラムのラブソング Lum no Love Song Edition and it's around somewhere in a box. Not the biggest fan of these Variety editions as I'm not too interested in that type of content. I think the CD Edition still has my favourite cover out of all four. Not too interested in completing the set anytime soon as there are more important titles I'm searching for. The mu-mo editions would be a great addition to my collection but they can be quite pricey when I've come across them.

CD+DVD Variety Edition

CD+DVD Lipstick Edition

CD+DVD ラムのラブソング Lum no Love Song Edition

mu-mo Editions

Being a Japanese release, this single is not available on Spotify for streaming. The single is available to purchase through most online stores still as I could find all the editions on CDJapan. YesAsia only has two editions available and that is where I originally brought mine from back in 2012. Hard to believe this single will be 10 years old this year! That's a scary thought and Orange Caramel haven't been active since 2014 :( On that sad note, this is the end of the review and I hope you enjoyed it! Please take a listen to Orange Caramel on Youtube ♡