The last music review was one about Crayon Pop so I thought why not post another one from the best K-Pop group ever!?!? I do miss the older days of K-Pop when I was a Crayon Pop stan (still call myself one) and followed everything from the group. Crayon Pop TV was absolutely hilarious and I loved seeing all the adventure the girls would get up to. Let's take a look at one of the group's Japanese releases POP! POP! POP!
POP! POP! POP! is the debut Japanese release from Korean girl group Crayon Pop. It is a mini album and was released in November 2014. It is the first and only Japanese mini album from the group and is your typical Korean song repackage you often see groups release when they want to debut in Japan. It was released in one version and I brought mine from YesAsia many years ago. The mini album comes with the following contents:
CD - 8 track mini album
DVD - contains 5 MVs
Jewel case
Lyrics booklet
OBI
The album cover is very on brand for Crayon Pop featuring the girls in their famous Bar Bar Bar outfits. The girls are pulling some awesome poses whilst surrounded by bright graphics. The back cover has another image of the girls in another fun pose and a fair amount of text. So much text on the back of this album! I think they tried to shove all the DVD information on here. I do like this album design though as it matches the group concept and is quite colourful instead of boring.
Instead the jewel case, you will find the lyrics booklet along with the CD and DVD. Such a cool design on both of the discs and stands out from the plain white background. The CD even has all the track listings printed onto it! Crayon Pop continued using this logo for their Japanese promotions.
Nice looking OBI for the POP! POP! POP! album featuring the blue and red tones from the album design. Crayon Pop always had great OBIs for their Japanese releases and they look lovely when stacked together. Two of my singles don't have them though as they are goods editions and don't fit or I didn't have one. I remember having to save up for this mini album back in the day as it was expensive for me. About $25USD which looking back is quite cheap for a Japanese release however back then I wasn't too into collecting yet and didn't know much about pricing.
The lyrics booklet is simple yet colourful. On the first page there is a photo of the girls in their famous tracksuits and this is an older image from previous releases. The Streets Go Disco mini album contains the same photo and that was released before POP! POP! POP! One of my favourite aspects of this lyrics booklet is the actual lyrics pages as they feature bright backgrounds in various colours. Much more exciting than the usual boring lyrics pages. Each member has a thank you section and the backgrounds of these are their matching member colours. There is one more group photo at the end of the booklet and this one is from Dancing Queen promotions.
No photocard for this release and the group's later Japanese releases did feature photocards. Would've been a fun addition for this album, like maybe ones of their well-known outfits? I feel all of Crayon Pop's outfits are iconic though. My copy of POP! POP! POP! came with some flyers about PONYCANYON and the group. The typical Japanese release flyer things.
Onto the track listing of the mini album now and it is a mixture of old and new songs. The CD contains the group's previous Korean releases and 3 new songs. BBYONG SONG is the lead track of this release and I quite liked this one as it features Geummi a fair bit. Nice to see her featured as she has a lovely voice and is one of my favourite members. The two new songs are actually new versions of Bar Bar Bar and Uh-ee. But this time they've been repackaged as EDM versions and are a fun trip. At first I was a bit iffy about these versions but eventually they grew on me and they are fun to listen to now. Shouldn't be taken seriously at all and if you are a Crayon Pop, you'll enjoy these. I swear there is about 4 different versions of Bar Bar Bar and if they ever release more, I will totally buy them haha.
CD Track Listing
BBYONG SONG
Saturday Night
BING BING
DANCING QUEEN
BAR BAR BAR
BAR BAR BAR (EDM Ver.)
Uh-ee
Uh-ee (EDM Ver.)
POP! POP! POP! also contains a DVD which is a great item for Crayon Pop collectors. It contains the music videos for all their Korean releases up to Bar Bar Bar. With the exception of Dancing Queen as the DVD contains the 2.0 version not the original one of them busking and the exception of the global version of Bar Bar Bar. This is the only release from the group to contain the Korean music videos however you can watch them on YouTube also. Their other Japanese DVDs do not contain the Korean videos so this is the best one to get if you want to forever own these masterpieces.
DVD Track Listing
SATURDAY NIGHT - MV
BING BING - MV
DANCING QUEEN 2.0 - MV
BAR BAR BAR - MV
Uh-ee - MV
Highly recommend picking up this album if you are a fan of Crayon Pop! I know there's more of us out there somewhere and I feel Crayon Pop is a group newer fans never get into. Their concept seems a bit farfetched compared to the current 4th Generation but we seriously need to bring back fun and quirky concepts to K-Pop! Orange Caramel and Crayon Pop were the top tier back then. POP! POP! POP! is unfortunately out of print and it would be ideal to search for a second hand copy. I'm off to rewatch these amazing MVs from the group and reminisce on the old days!
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