Monday, 18 January 2021

CLC High Heels - Mini Album Review (Type A CD Only)

Last year I posted reviews of CLC's second Japanese mini album チャミスマ Chamisma and after nearly a year, it's time for the follow up review of their first Japanese mini album High Heels. I love the group's Japanese releases and have all five of them. Yep there's only five and I wish there was more. Like the group had no more Japanese promotions after チャミスマ Chamisma and I guess the change in concept was maybe linked to that. But it is Cube after all, so who knows. Let's take a look at Type A of High Heels!


High Heels is CLC's first Japanese mini album and it was released in April 2016 through Tower Records Japan. The mini album comes in two editions: Type A CD Only and Type B CD+DVD. I got both editions through the Tower Records online store when they were on sale once. The Type A editions includes the following contents:
  • CD - 5 track mini album
  • Lyrics booklet
  • Jewel Case
  • OBI


The concept for Type A of High Heels is a cute and innocent look. Reminds of me of classic early CLC looks and concepts. The front cover has a group photo of the members looking stunning and the back cover has a simple design. Not as colourful and fun as the 
チャミスマ Chamisma singles but it matches the feel of the mini album perfectly. チャミスマ Chamisma is more lively where as this one is more casual. The back cover contains the track listing, the logo and some production credits information.


Another beautifully designed CD from CLC just like their other Japanese releases. I love these pastel toned designs on CD releases as I'm really into pastel aesthetics nowadays. One thing I don't like about this mini album design is that the photo from the front cover is re-used as the photo underneath the CD case. Like why? It's just lazy and I would've preferred a blank or coloured background instead of a repeat. 
OBI strip is perfect as usual!





Onto the lyrics booklet now and CLC honestly has some of the best lyrics booklet's for J-Pop releases. The booklets always have lovely photos and it's just not boring text on every page. Each member gets an individual photo and there's a large group photo at the beginning of the booklet. Lyrics for each song are included along with more production credit information.








Now for a review of the songs! High Heels is basically a compilation of Japanese versions of the group's Korean title tracks and one English cover. The mini album is a nice debut for the group in Japan as it has songs fans are familiar with and a lot of Korean groups tend to do this for their debut Japanese releases. My favourite track on this release is 'I Should Be So Lucky' which is an English cover of a famous 80's pop song from Kylie Minogue. Kylie is huge here in Australia and I know that this particular song is quite popular in Japan. E-girls often sung it at their concerts and a number of Kylie's songs were covered by Japanese artists in the 80's and 90's. I wish the mini album had a Japanese version of 'Yaya (Say Bye To Solo)' as that is one of my favourite CLC songs and my favourite track on their 3rd Mini Album which the original Korean version of High Heels comes from. Type A of High Heels contains the following track list:
  1. ファーストラブ First Love [Japanese Version]
  2. PEPE [Japanese Version]
  3. クングメ Curious [Japanese Version]
  4. High Heels [Japanese Version]
  5. I Should Be So Lucky


Both editions of High Heels do not include photocards and they were introduced for 
チャミスマ Chamisma. Maybe there was exclusive photocards sold in store or at events, I'm not entirely sure as I've never seen any. Here are both editions of High Heels together and Type B has my favourite concept out of the two. High Heels currently isn't available for purchase via the Tower Records online store however you can still purchase in-store. I was so happy to get hold of these and all the editions of チャミスマ Chamisma as I'm quite a fan of the Japanese releases from the group. Sometimes Tower Record exclusive releases can be a pain to get, but luckily there was a sale on right at the moment when I was making an order through Zenmarket. Hope you enjoyed this review of High Heels and I'll be back with a review of Type B soon!

High Heels Type A & Type B

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