From clicking that 'order' button to religiously tracking your delivery to carefully opening your package, getting an album is an entire experience of its own. It's an excitement that you keep coming back to, even if your wallet tells you to stop. 

In 2022, our team indulged in buying our fair share of albums, whether that be from K-pop idols or our favourite bands. But there's definitely something that's got to be said about the former with so many imaginative concepts and incredible designs that we can't help but fawn over.

So, as the final instalment of our Best of 2022 series, here are Bandwagon's top picks for K-pop album packaging.

New Jeans - NewJeans

Trust Min Hee-jin (민희진), K-pop industry innovator and ADOR’s (All Doors One Room) head honcho, to come up with an experience (emphasis on the italics) when it comes to music releases. “Physical CDs are no longer something to be heard but seen [because] it’s through the CD covers that the consumer meets new music,” she once said in 2010, as quoted by The Korea Herald. With their much-celebrated music, ADOR’s girl group NewJeans had to match it with a visually-driven identity and narrative that would be apt for their fresh, “natural” concept.

In their self-titled EP (stylized as New Jeans, two words), NewJeans doubles down on the nostalgia factor. Each of the 4 smash hit tracks – including the anthemic ‘Hype Boy’ – are somewhat influenced by pop from the early aughties. Visually speaking though, NewJeans’ shtick was not just to reference Y2K pop culture and design trends, but to create an entire time capsule. Physical copies came in a compact WeVerse version, a big ‘Blue Book’, and a cute, useful round bag. Each variant tried to go for a DIY-like charm, resembling risograph prints with stickers all over. There are the staple photocards (a concept that Min Hee-jin herself had pioneered with Girls’ Generation) with doodles by the members on the reverse side. One of the photobook concepts was made to look like a test booklet. The CDs themselves look like the burned discs of yore – complete with colored marker art.

While the ‘Y2K look’ has become ubiquitous as of late, too often, most attempts end up like caricaturish simulations. Here, the design avoids relying on the 2000s’ favorite retrofuturist clichés (think: sci-fi typefaces, glossy chrome skeuomorphism, frosty blues, android-like fashion, etc.). The idea is that NewJeans are ordinary teenage girls, and all these things just happened to be the epitome of cool. It’s like living in the world of Mandy Moore’s ‘Candy,’ for example – so unapologetically kitschy – but you know what, I can live with that. It all just feels warm and familiar, taking you back to carefree times.

MIITO - DPR IAN

DPR IAN always makes sure everything he comes out with is an experience. Beyond the enthralling music that tells the journey of his alter ego and the cinematic videos that have you in a trance, the physical album for MIITO was equally as mesmerising.

The cover of the album was heat sensitive, meaning that it changed from red to a light pink depending on how hot it got. Since I lived in the Philippines, I received it as pink as it could get. When I first got it, I'm pretty sure I spent a good 10 minutes holding my album up in front of the cold air watching it turn a bright red before trying to turn it back to pink with my hands. While on the inside, MIITO has a holographic image of DPR IAN's character's many forms—which I also spend too long playing with—and the CD that resembles an iris. 

 

 

 

 

 

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The album itself is fairly simple, but these small yet impactful details make it so memorable. And after experiencing so many varied offerings from the entire DPR crew this year, I've learned that that's what really makes DPR IAN stand. It's not huge pieces that try to do too much, but tiny factors that add up to a masterpiece. Every so often, I catch a glimpse of MIITO sitting on my shelf and I can't help but pick it up and be captivated all over again. 

Gasoline - KEY

The expectations run high when KEY comes out with a new record, not just for its catchy and groovy music but also for its otherwordly concept that flows throughout the comeback. In 2021, we highlighted the SHINee member's action figure box for BAD LOVE as one of the unique physical albums you need to check out; and this year, the singer is back at it with his extremely conceptual records but this time, in the form of a good ol' VHS tape and floppy disc. 

Keeping to his ongoing theme of terrifyingly fashionable nostalgia, KEY returned with his second album, Gasoline where he takes on the role of a mad scientist gone rogue inspired by the campy adventure and horror films of his childhood. The imaginative concept carries on with the album's packaging, which comes in several versions including one that resembles a VHS tape and another that looks like a floppy disc. The album and all its inclusions (which is your typical K-pop album treats like photocards and posters) are packaged in a massive and sturdy VHS case or an incredibly detailed representation of a floppy disc, both of which channel the experiences of the singer's childhood.

Birthday - Red Velvet

 “Delicious’ may seem like an odd adjective to use when describing a physical album, but it was the first word that came to my mind every time I lay eyes on the “Cake” version of Red Velvet’s The ReVe Festival 2022 - Birthday. Made to resemble a birthday cake, which is really apt considering the mini-album’s title, its compact circular packaging is a refreshing change from the angular shapes of most K-pop albums that you will find today. SM Entertainment could have easily just given us one design for this version of the mini-album, but instead, it opted to go a step further by creating five. Named after Red Velvet’s Irene, Seulgi, Wendy, Joy, and Yeri, the variants come in different colours and are embellished with distinctive decorative features. For instance, the “Yeri” edition — which I own — is purple in colour, has the South Korean girl group’s name written in white icing, and is adorned with bright red cherries. The attention to detail in the five different designs is something that needs to be commended and it certainly makes it difficult to resist collecting all “flavours” of the "Cake" version.

The items that you'll find upon opening up the "cake" are standard K-pop fare (a physical CD, a photocard, and a folded mini lyric sheet), with the exception being five photo discs. These double sided inclusions may take some getting used to, but they are interesting replacements for the traditional photo book that add to the overall uniqueness of the mini-album. 

레드벨벳 Red Velvet 'The ReVe Festival 2022 - Birthday' Album Detail - Cake Ver.

🎧 2022.11.28. 6PM KST#The_ReVe_Festival_2022#Birthday #벌스데이#레드벨벳 #RedVelvet

💿Pre-orderhttps://t.co/7mg2oXB9OS pic.twitter.com/Ocvdv1ZUZ7

— Red Velvet (@RVsmtown) November 23, 2022

An innovative follow-up to The ReVe Festival 2022 - Feel My Rhythm's "Orgel" version, the "Cake" version of The ReVe Festival 2022 - Birthday is a must-have even for those outside of the ReVeluv community and is a step in the right direction for album design in K-pop.

Indigo - RM

By now, RM's love of all things art is no secret. You see it on his Instagram and you definitely feel traces of it in his latest album, Indigo—in fact, the record's very own digital cover features Korean artist Yun Hyong-keun's painting, Blues (1972). So, you can expect nothing else than an artful experience out of Indigo's physical album. 

At first glance, Indigo is unassuming, as intended. On Weverse Magazine, A Ji-Hye from Sparks Edition Studio, who designed the album, writes, "We gave the album packaging a clean, simple design, adding words reminiscent of a user guide, as RM had suggested, so we could capture his hope to be a part of people’s everyday lives. We took a lot into consideration and worked from various angles to properly convey RM’s honest, unembellished record of his life."

Like a simple art gallery you stumble upon during a random walk in the city, its beauty lies on the inside. Once you open the album, it looks like one of the many museums RM visits, deconstructed into pieces small enough to adorn your wall. While everything inside, like the postcards, posters, indigo-coloured art pieces, and CD, is meant to be touched and moved around, it feels too delicate to handle, like when a museum tells you not to touch the paintings. Indigo is so precisely done, with details of RM's personality and artistry sprinkled throughout the entire package.

Epik High Is Here - Epik High

The physical album of Epik High Is Here, designed by visual artist HONNO, reflects so much of the music that it contains. Part 1 talks about the personal struggles and uncertainty that plague our day to day, while Part 2 is about that glimmer of hope that's always there even when we can't see it. The former is dark, adorned with a butterfly symbolising 'soul' while the latter is pastel-hued themed after the pigeons of International Day of Peace. Its message is clear, depicting the complex emotions each part has to offer. 

You unfold the album in layers, with each layer alternating between Part 1 and Part 2. It feels like a representation of life, constantly going in cycles of despair and hope. Epik High Is Here is a complete package, one part correlating to the next and so on. It immediately hints at the story and the world that lies within. 

Hello World! - Xdinary Heroes

When it comes to K-pop albums, a strong concept that goes all the way is greatly appreciated. It's fun and adds a new level of excitement to the already thrilling process of opening up an album, which is why we truly adore Xdinary Heroes' Hello World!.

The album, at least one version of it, comes in the form of a notebook, a fully-fledged spiral-bound notebook. You flip through it and it feels like a school notebook, complete with doodles you'd make during class and hand-written lyrics that look like notes. Also as an added detail, the CD itself (which comes in a pocket in the notebook) has embossed manuscript notebook lines—it's such a tiny thing but adds so much to the overall album. For a new group, first impressions are greatly important and Xdinary Heroes certainly made a favourable one with Hello World!.  

Check out the rest of our Best of 2022 lists, where we round up our top songs, music videos, collaborations, concerts, and more.