2NE1 - Crush from Kpop Mart

So today's review is going to be a bit different to usual because it's going to be more of a review of my purchase!! I recently bought my first Kpop CD (previous CD's have been bought for me) so I figured I'd review it as an actual purchase rather than just reviewing the music. If you like this style of review, let me know in the comments and I'll make more! However, if I suddenly see my follower count drop, I'll know to never do it again!!

Anyway, I'm sure you've all heard of 2NE1, the queens of Kpop (I am obviously not biased) but you may not have heard that they recently released their second album CRUSH. After falling in love with their song HAPPY I knew I needed the album and I went on a perilous journey into the depths of the internet to see where I could get for cheap. I ended up purchasing from Kpop mart. Why did I choose kpop mart over any other kpop site? Simply because they were offering the poster for free!! The CD cost me $17.80 and there was a $10.80 shipping fee, when I payed through paypal it ended up costing me £17.74 which is a really good deal considering albums usually cost around £15! I paid for it on the 14th March and it arrived on the 25th, so it must have been dispatched quickly although I never received an e-mail telling me that it was dispatched which I thought was a bit odd! But I don't mind because I only had to wait 11 days!
Thenceforth, I came home from school on the 25th to a rather large looking parcel. It was super well wrapped; parcel tape every where! I had to cut into the box to access my item. Inside the box, the poster was securely in a poster tube and the CD was wrapped in bubble wrap so it didn't get bashed about inside the box. Also I found my member photo card, it was loose in the box so I could of missed! But it wasn't damaged so no harm done!

I'll put the poster aside for now and focus on the CD. I went for the pink version because there aren't many things that don't look better in bright colours! It's unlike any other CD I've seen before, it's thicker and feels a lot sturdier than an average album. But what's really strange is that there isn't a conventional album cover. Instead, what you see is the front of the CD itself! It's a bit odd and I think I'd rather a paper cover myself, but it still looks good! I do love the geometric shapes, they remind me of a kaleidoscope! Of course there's also a lyric book in the CD case. It's a really thick booklet because there's a lot of photos in it. It's made of really good quality paper; it's thick and shiny and the printing is really good! The photos used only have solid colour background though so they could have definitely made that a bit more interesting, otherwise the booklet is faultless.

Also snug inside the bubble wrap was these three photo cards. They are all double sided so there's two photos of the whole group and then a solo photo of each of them. These are also printed on nice thick card and the colours are so vibrant! I believe these are designed to fit in your purse or wallet, but I don't have room in my purse so I think I'll just stick them on my wall! Also, I got a member photo card. You get one member at random and I got CL! The photo is polaroid style, so it's stuck onto a piece of card which has the same dimensions as a mini polaroid. CL is wearing minimal make-up and comfy clothes so it feels a bit more intimate than the fully staged photos on the photo cards. Also at the bottom of the card it says 'Hey Baby' with a heart which looks handwritten and a pretend lipstick kiss. It's really cute, although I would have preferred Minzy!

Then there's the poster, it was in a really strong poster tube made of super thick card and a metal cap! I couldn't get it open for ages, I had to use a pair of scissors to prise it open!! Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but as far as the poster is concerned it's the same for black and pink version. Which is a shame because I think this poster is boring. Because it's so white, it just blends in with my wall. Although I like the cuboid effect, I'd prefer it if the members where in the poster together more, interacting with each other. Also, some of the editing looks a bit too sharp; too many of the lines are straight and it looks incredibly unrealistic. It's not really a bad poster, but it's certainly not one that I'd choose. Whats more, Dara, what are you doing? You don't need to hunch over like that, you're not that tall! It looks very uncomfortable to stand like that, it will give you back problems!

As far as the audio is concerned, you should just trust me when I say that every track on this album is a piece of art. It's lovely that CL actually helped out with lyrics and production of this album and it makes it that much more personal! For £18 it's a steal! In regards to Kpop mart, they send my item quickly and it was well packaged (except the photo card which was left loose). I should of mentioned it in the beginning but I also love the layout of kpop mart. All the CD's are grouped by artists and you can browse through them by female groups, male groups, female solos and male solos. So even if you're not sure what you want to buy you can easily find something you'll like from them and I would definitely recommend kpop mart to any one who wants to purchase Kpop!

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