Time to share one of my favourite albums from one of my favourite classic K-Pop groups - T-ARA's Jewelry Box! This was a title I was trying to get my hands on for ages and I finally got a good copy with the extras from Japan. I feel sometimes new K-Pop fans forget about how big T-ARA was and this release is a great one to get if you want to get into the group as it covers so many great songs from them. Let's take a look at the Pearl Edition of Jewelry Box!
Jewelry Box is T-ARA's first Japanese album and it was released in June 2012. The album was released in three editions: Diamond, Sapphire and Pearl. I'll talk more about the Diamond and Sapphire Editions later on in the post. I brought the Pearl Edition which is the cheapest edition retailing at ¥3,000. I got mine through Yahoo Auctions second hand along with the Pearl Edition of the group's second Japanese album Treasure Box. My copy came with the following contents:- Member Plate CD (1 of 7 members) - 13 track album
- Lyrics booklet
- Jewel case
- OBI strip
- Event information cards
- Photocard (8 to collect)
The Pearl Edition of Jewelry Box is my favourite of the three just for the concept and design. The colours are beautifully vibrant and I'm always drawn to anything pink! The outfits are very on point for T-ARA and you can see each member's charms come through in the photos. The front cover has the girls lounging around in a cute bedroom and the back cover has another fun photo. The track listing is noted at the top and there is the usual production credits as well.
It took me a while to find a listing for this album that included the OBI strip. I had been looking for a few years and always came across ones without it or didn't show it visible in the photos. That's the trick with Yahoo Auctions, I always go buy the photos to see if the seller has the OBI tucked into the jewel case as you can sometimes see it in the case if you look hard enough. This OBI is quite interesting as it contains as much information as they could fit on it!
The Pearl Edition of this release comes with a member plate CD and I got Boram's plate. T-ARA did a lot of this type of CD for their Japanese releases and it's pretty easy to find listings for certain members. Member CD plates are always gorgeous but I don't really collect them as they can be difficult to get the Japanese ones. These types of CD's are nice as it makes the CD more unique and is way above the standard boring coloured CD. My copy of Jewelry Box also came with some event information cards which are outdated now.
Onto the lyrics booklet now and it's my favourite type of Japanese booklet that includes photos! Absolutely over the moon that it has full page photos of the members and not just the lyrics. All the photos are just gorgeous and I love the concept of this edition. One thing I love about this release is that there are no repeat photos and each one is special. I appreciate the thought that went into producing this release. The lyrics booklet contains two group photos and individual photos of each member. A whole page photo as well which is wonderful! There are pages for the lyrics for all the songs as well as production credits.
The album includes a photocard which is great as I don't often find these when I buy CD's secondhand. The photocard is even the smaller size so it can find in folders. Japanese cards can often be quite large and awkward to store. The seller sent Qri's card which is beautiful and well designed. There's a code on the back which is guess was for an event in Japan. I'm not a big fan of codes on the back of photocards as it cheapens the look of the design but I get why they do it (to sell more albums!!!).
Jewelry Box is made up of mostly Japanese versions of the group's Korean releases. There are 13 tracks in total and only two are new songs exclusive to Japan - Keep Out and T-ARATiC MAGiC MUSiC. The latter is my favourite song on the album and I always sing along to it when it comes on. I would've never discovered this amazing song if I wasn't randomly watching T-ARA videos on YouTube one day and it was the main reason I got this CD. All the Japanese versions are great and my favourites would be Bo Peep Bo Peep, yayaya and Roly-Poly. These songs sound great in Japanese and あなたのせいで狂いそう LOVE ME! ~Because You're So Crazy~ is another song that works well with Japanese lyrics. Here is the track listing for Jewelry Box:
- Bo Peep Bo Peep [Japanese Ver.]
- yayaya [Japanese Ver.]
- ウェイロニ Wae Ireoni [Japanese Ver.]
- Keep Out
- Apple is A [Japanese Ver.]
- T.T.L ~ Time to Love~ [Japanese Ver.]
- Roly-Poly [Japanese Ver.]
- あなたのせいで狂いそう LOVE ME! ~Because You're So Crazy~ [Japanese Ver.]
- コジンマル～嘘～Lies [Japanese Ver.]
- 私がとても痛くて I'm Really Hurt [Japanese Ver.]
- Cry Cry [Japanese Ver.]
- Lovey Dovey [Japanese Ver.]
- T-ARATiC MAGiC MUSiC
The album comes in two other editions: Diamond and Sapphire. T-ARA kept this model for their two other Japanese albums and I quite like it as it's more unique than just Limited Edition or Type A/B whatever. The Diamond Edition comes with a DVD containing T-ARA's X’mas Premium LIVE in Osaka 2011 Special Edition concert and four MV's. This edition also contains the photobook and everything is housed in a beautiful jewelry box! The Sapphire Edition comes with a DVD containing the history of T-ARA. The Diamond Edition was the main one I wanted to get but it's harder to find and more expensive. All the editions have the same track listing so no exclusive editions songs like some Japanese releases do.
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| Diamond Edition CD+DVD+PHOTOBOOK |
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| Sapphire Edition CD+DVD |
I just love this release from T-ARA as it has so many top notch songs and the aesthetic is stunning. This album is one I would put on display as it's that good. One day I'd like to get the Diamond Edition for the DVD of the MV's but I'm happy I got the Pearl Edition finally as it truly is my favourite of the three editions. I've listed a few MV's from this release so be sure to listen to them if you want to experience total bops!
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