The 1st Mini Album `SuperM

The formation of SuperM is something I find fascinating. When the supergroup was announced, comprising of SHINee's Taemin, EXO's Baekhyun and Kai, NCT's Taeyong and Mark, and WayV's Ten and Lucas, you'd have thought that the response would be ecstatic. The most popular of SM's artists joining up into a new group! Fans' favourites working together! Boy, was I naïve. Soon after their announcement I remember social media being filled with scorn and disdain for the new group. Dozens of obnoxious "hot takes" about how SuperM was a desperate attempt to rival BTS (if your reaction to that was "What the hell?" then join the club my friend). Loads of "No thanks, sis", "Anyway, stream X" or #SuperMDisbandParty being thrown around before the group had even done anything. You forget how privileged some hardcore K-Pop fans act towards these things. As a fan of SHINee, EXO, NCT and WayV, I was excited. I wasn't without some of my own worries - while I love SM's artists, the company itself has a much more hit-and-miss record and there is ground to the argument that SuperM is primarily a moneymaking exercise. I also wasn't keen on the fact that the group was only being promoted in America, but I digress. When the album was released and promotions began, many of these entitled "fans" suddenly started to disappear and … I don't know, actually give them a chance? People who'd been calling for the group's blood were suddenly in love with them. Who would have guessed? And so we have SuperM's first mini-album. The album itself has seven tracks, and comes with a photobook and random photocard (I got Taeyong!). The songs included are:1) Jopping - Debuting in America with a song called Jopping is a brave thing to do. Mainly because no-one actually knew what Jopping meant before this was released, and has the potential to sound silly to your average listener (although if you're a K-Pop veteran, by now having a song called Jopping is pretty standard stuff). The song itself is bold, triumphant and sounds suitably epic. It gets you hyped and showcases each member's talents (I've got to give a shout-out to Baekhyun's high note)2) I Can't Stand The Rain - I don't have a clear-cut favourite from this mini-album, but I Can't Stand The Rain is definitely up there as one of my favourites. Like Jopping, there's an epic and dramatic quality to this track with great instrumentation, tight choruses and top-notch vocals.3) 2 Fast - An ironic title given that 2 Fast starts off pretty chilled and relaxed. It does however speed up during the chorus. Beyond that there isn't much for me to say about 2 Fast. It's a reliable listen but there isn't much more about it that stands out compared to the other tracks on the album.4) Super Car - Some people have pointed out that each song on here sounds like it might belong to one of its members' other groups, and I can see where they're coming from with Super Car, as it does sound very much like something from NCT. It's a trippy, electronic number although it may be remembered best for omitting Mark's rap as heard in his individual teaser.5) No Manners - Joins Jopping and I Can't Stand The Rain as one of my favourite tracks. Reading the lyrics, No Manners turns what could've easily been a sad song into something catchy and memorable. It's nice to hear so much of Ten's voice, and out of every song he's been in, this is also the most that Taeyong has caught my attention as a rapper. His segment in here is brilliant.6) Jopping (Instrumental) - SuperM has been sold as the Avengers of K-Pop and you really get that impression from listening to the instrumental of Jopping. It blends swelling orchestral sounds with a more simple pop sound really well and is definitely worth hearing on its own.7) I Can't Stand The Rain (Instrumental) - Another one where I'm glad to hear the instrumental on its own. The music of this one is really crisp and pleasing. It has a strength to it, and I hadn't previously picked up on the more traditional motifs scattered throughout.Overall, SuperM's debut is a solid one. It's fair to say that they definitely achieved what they were setting out to do, and while this mini-album feels brief, I really hope to hear more from them together in the future. This is a group with potential, and as has been pointed out is made up of leading men. There's a lot of musical and artistic directions the group could take from here and this album is a solid foundation from which to begin.

I bought this in addition to my digital/streamed copy because it's so good that I wanted to support them as much as possible.The one I went with was reasonably priced at just over a tenner for the sleeved, boxed cd with a colour photo book intergrated into the design. Nicely constructed and lots of idols to look at; which is fab.The booklet includes lyrics separately in Korean hangul+English AND English translation. There'sno romanized version unless you look online.With this set you also get a small poster, a little larger than A4, of the entire group and a photocard of one member (random)Mine was Lucas, it has his pic and sig on there. Cute and nice to keep. Card is tucked into the pages so you may not find it immediately.I'd you're a Kpop fan you may enjoy this, though I don't like all groups in the genre I absolutely can't get enough of this album. It puts me in such a great mood and I can't stop jopping.They have a different style to others like the behemoth that is BTS. Even with members of various groups you'll find this is a sound all their own. MV is a great combo of cinematic styles.Now I have had to kick Taemin off my top spot on my ringtones in favour of SuperM (he's part of this group too so I'm sure he won't be too upset)Give it a go, accidentally learn some Korean in the process. The songs are mostly in English so it's not intimidating to those who don't want to think about language barriers.

Ordered Kai version of this CD from Korea , was very happy with the service and excellent packaging. Received a poster of Kai as extra , think you only get this if you order from Korea , not sure . Also came with 3 photo cards and as part of the cd a beautiful book with photo s of Kai and words to all songs . So I'm very pleased over all .😃

The album came in mint condition and arrived earlier than the expected date, there was no damage to the packaging whatsoever, it came with one photocard and a small folded poster. Thank you so much, I love it❤

Turned up earlier than expected. Was in excellent condition, loved that the folded poster was of the member who's version of the album i ordered as this often doesn't happen. I knew that it came with extra photocards but I didn't realise it would be so many which I was very happy about.

Came on time, the only situation I had was that I didn’t get a photo card. The whole album was sealed too and It wasn’t the sellers fault. So I contacted with the seller and after a month of trying to get one I finally received a photo card. Overall, no damage to the album and was perfect!

Everything was amazing and the poster looks great, the only problem is that the spine of the photobook seems to be ripping off from the back of the album a little, but it’s not a big issue. I got Taeyong’s photocard in mine :)

I was really excited to get this album and when it came in the post (sooner than stated), I was super happy that it was perfect quality. It came sealed and contains the photo card and poster as well as the photo book, all in perfect condition.