Woah, finally.

Actually I've been planning to make a review of their latest mini album but I never did because it's always better to make a review when I've got the physical copy of the album itself like I always do. And because of the many incidents starting from the tragedy of the Sewol ship accident to Kris filing a lawsuit against SM, causing delays of the shipping of my album.

Nevertheless, the album itself arrived within my door step on May 26th, a month after I clicked that "proceed" button on the webstore. And fortunately, the package arrived in a good condition. Anyway, I often get questions on askfm asking where do I buy my EXO's albums. Honestly speaking, when it comes to ordering album from Korea, it's better for you to make a few research on some of your friends or even me, to know which kpop stores are reliable enough to shop at. I would recommend you (especially Indonesian readers) to shop at Gasoo Galore because GG has its own webstore and even the procedure of its ordering system is pretty complicated, which in my opinion the more complicated it is, the more reliable the shop. I have personal experience of buying EXO's repackage album, Growl, through some random kpop shop on Twitter. And I gotta tell you it wasn't a nice decision because if SM didn't send me a message consisting the images of EXO's repackage album, I wouldn't buy it. So it was a last minute decision and very rushed. I bet when I placed my order back then because the reliable of the online shop itself should be questioned but I had no other choice because most of the online shops had closed their date limit of ordering the album. And it was the only one left and at the end I didn't get a poster from Growl :c So I remind you to closely look for the shop you're ordering from.

Since their Christmas album, MID, I've started buying Korean albums through Opparels (Twitter | Instagram), and I can safely say that they're trusted seller. Opparels don't only sell Korean albums but also Japanese albums. They also offer you magazines, original cosmetics (Nature Republic for example), clothes, and official merchandise. What I love from Opparels, is that even until now I still can order EXO's first mini album, MAMA, and they say I still can get the poster! Posters are hard to get once you order the album far after it has been released because they're limited edition. Opparels surely sell stuffs much cheaper than GG :)

As always, I will do a review using the Mandarin version of the album. And for those who don't know why I only buy M's version, I'll soon explain it in another post. So here comes the review!

Appearance:

☯ Since the beginning of the teaser for the mini album, I was happy because that means EXO was going to have a new logo. And now it's not only their EXO logo, but also each members' individual symbols have been upgraded. The maze gives a lot of assumption, does that mean we're going "overdose" while listening to their latest album and be trapped by its beautiful songs and not being able to free ourselves? The colors of the maze are different for each version. If you happen to see the Korean version, black dominates its over, while white dominates M's version. SM just turns the table, as you can see above.

☯ Plus, if you pay quite the attention, the labyrinth on its cover has a faint highlighter line if you play it under the light which shows a way surrounding the entire maze. That's pretty cool.

Packaging:

☯ I need 15 minutes to completely open the box. I don't understand why is it very tight?? At first seeing from the web, I knew it was going to be the same to MID. The inside of the album? It's a total twin to MID. SM doesn't change much of the design of the album aside from its outside appearance. I’d say, I'm not surprised with the entire concept of the album design because I've seen it in MID and I was slightly hoping SM would give us something new and mindblowing because the new symbol of EXO definitely makes me thinking like that.

PS: The sticker set is a gift form Opparels, not the official one coming from SM.

Photobook:

☯ I love the outside of the photobook cover. It's the initial of each member's name carved using labyrinth. Eventhough the overall content of the book isn't as overwhelming as Growl or as cute as in MID. The images this time are their close up photos covered in dreamy and hallucinating effects. Fine for me, because however I like the boys' fashion here, not too ordinary like they were shot in MAMA album, but still simple and not too much like in Growl / XOXO. Totally make me going ‘overdose’.

Music:

☯ For an album that got delayed only for respecting a ship accident, Overdose is such a heart breaker. Nothing fresh comes from this album and I can hardly find my favorite songs from this except its title song. I feel bad for the album because it takes time for me to actually understand what the hell is this album trying to prove?? I don't know what genre the entire album is, and sadly there are only two~three songs that get stuck on my head, and even that, not for a long period.

☯ Most favorite track: Overdose, Thunder, Moonlight.

☯ Least favorite track: Run.

Photocard:

☯ I don't know is it me or luck is on my side, but fortunately I got myself one of EXO-M's members which is Luhan. I'd be crazily looking for a friend to trade with my photocard if I got any of EXO-K's members (unless it’s Sehun) (really though I can’t seem to hate him because Taohun duh). I was hoping to get Kris' photocard because it's extremely rare which I don’t know why, but it's merely for the sake of completing my individual photocard of each members (so far I have PC of Tao, Lay, Luhan, and EXO-M ot6) (next target is going to be Xiuchen) because after this Overdose era, SM is not going to produce Kris' photocard again and I'll be very very very sad :c Well, what can I say about the photocard? Maybe from the photo itself, Overdose fortunately shows their best shot this time haha—and that's one reason why I'm craving for Kris' because duh, I can't with his brows ;~;

Well, that was quick.

Overall, I'm gonna give it 7,9 out of 10. Because straight 8 is just too good for the entire album, but 7,8 doesn't do justice when EXO have given their best on this album. So 7,9 it is.

Too bad, because well, music plays a really big part on this and even the songs in this album doesn't "wow" me like they ever did through XOXO. Too bad, huh? And I can't even believe myself for giving them such score :c But a review is a review and to top it; I'm quite disappointed with Overdose.