Out of all the releases this year, my favourite in terms of concept and design have go to be Key’s hunter and NCT wish’s Poppop and colour. With the variation in design and the unique and quirky versions of each album.
My personal favourite of Key’s albums is the retro trilogy with Bad love, Gasoline and Killer. Each one had a different retro theme built on nostalgia that Key had for his childhood. Bad love being sci-fi, gasoline horror/fantasy and Killer a retro video game. What made each album even better was how the album versions all linked to the concept. Each album would have a standard photobook version of course. Bad love had one version that looked like a cereal box, one that looked like a toy gun in packaging and one made to look like a VHS/Cassette, all link quite closely to the retro sci-fi theme. Again with Gasoline there was a VHS version and a floppy disk version, and with Killer there was a dvd box version, a version made to look like a mini arcade machine and one that looks like a retro handheld video game console.
That doesn’t even include the rest of his albums. He truly is incredibly innovative with his album designs and we are definitely beginning to see more and more groups and idols have similar ideas with album design, not only within SM but outside of SM as well. Key’s creative input into his work truly pays off and he definitely deserves way more praise for his art than he’s currently getting.
One group I do think we can clearly see has taken some inspiration in the way of unique album versions is NCT wish, and even then they’re doing rather innovative stuff. They had their Wichus which are a huge hit, they sell out crazy fast and stores that have wichus don’t tend to have them for that long with how popular they are. And now we are starting to see a few groups copy that idea with their own plushes released as album versions (Which imo is much better because you get more for the price you pay, instead of having to buy a plush seperately). And you can’t talk about Wish albums without mentioning the cute keychain made to look like a tamagotchi. Of course a lot of this we have Boa to thank for, as she is the creative director of Wish.
WIth NCT wish I do believe they are criminally underrated as a group in general. Their concepts are fresh and exciting, they’re very age appropriate and its unlikely that they’l change the concept anytime soon since the members do in fact love the concepts they have. Not only that but the vocals are amazing and Jaehee is shaping up to be one of the best in the 5th gen.
In conclusion, i honestly think Key is incredibly innovative with his concepts and album designs and is definitely the King of Concepts. NCT Wish are just a breath of fresh air in a music landscape dominated by louder sounds.
submitted by /u/sunflowersandpears
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