So, when Monsta X released their album, The Connect, a few weeks ago, I posted a review of it (you can read it here), and I didn’t give it the greatest review. If anything, I gave it a very bad review. Since then, I have listened to the album straight through a few more times, and although I appreciate it a little bit more, it still will never be a part of my top ten albums (you can read about some of my favorites here). Despite it being just okay, I did still buy all four copies of the album, as I am crazy. #noregrets
I picked up all of my copies from Choice Music. They had a really good deal going where you can buy all 4 for 64.99, plus shipping here. You can also buy just one version for 16.99 plus shipping here, based off of which one you like the best. Update: I do not shop at Choice Music anymore, due to a bad customer service experience, so I now shop at Music Plaza LA. If you have never used Music Plaza before, this link will get you an extra 5% off of your first purchase!
You can also pick up all 4 for $99.00 on Amazon here, which is a really crappy deal. You can also get one for $22.99 here, which I think also isn’t as good of a deal.
You can also order a copy of the album from an eBay, as they typically have good prices. Plus, with eBay, you can save a little bit of money by using the E-Bates extension on your browser, as it will save you 2% on all album purchases, which definitely adds up.
What is E-Bates?
E-Bates is a cashback site that gives you money for purchases you may have already made. They even have an extension for multiple browsers so when you go to a website that uses Ebates, it will automatically pop up the cashback button to make sure you are saving money. I use this all the time, and I got over 80$ back from them for purchases I was going to make anyway. That’s about 3 more albums I can buy!
If you’ve never used EBates before, you can use this link to get $10 when making a qualified purchase of $25 when using EBates. You will also get whatever percent cashback is being offered from the site you are purchasing from. Sephora, typically has 4% cashback, through here. Sokoglam typically has 3%. These percentages Many other major retailers are on there as well.
Things to know about this album:
- There are 4 versions (shown in order):
- Each version comes with:
- Poster (I opted out of the big ones)
- CD one for each version
- Mini poster
- 4 photo cards
- Version specific photo card, different one for each member (28 total of these). You get one per album
- Group photo (4 versions). I have 3 out of the 4
- Pre-order benefit unit photo card (30 versions)
- Pre-order benefit member photo set, the big punch out thing (7 versions)
- Pre-order benefit extra “special” photo card of one of the members (7 versions)
- Don’t ask me which cards are which, as I have no idea. I just know I have them
- 84-page photo booklet
- So when I opened the albums, I totally had a freakout moment when I saw “X=4155102M” all over the albums. I was like WHAT DOES THIS EVEN MEAN, to the point I messaged a friend saying “what is this secret code nonsense!” And then went to Google, cause the internet knows everything. Apparently, it is their debut day backwards, and I then felt like an idiot for not flipping the stupid thing around in my head and figuring out it is a date… and I went to college.
- The photos are good, but they aren’t on Seventeen Teen,age album levels (read that ish here). It’s hard to get on that level of beautiful, so I’m not shocked they didn’t achieve it. I feel like if you are going to go for the acid trip photo style, where the colors are all muted and the photos are weird though, you have to go big or go home, like Sexy, Free, and Single or SHINee’s Sherlock (those posts are coming, just know those albums are really strange). They didn’t do that here, and I’m disappointed.
K-Points: 291/5
So, not only is the album not 100% phenomenal, they also made 4 versions of an album that isn’t phenomenal, and I feel like they are just robbing people of all of their money. On top of that, the super MonBebes are going to go CRAZY trying to get their hands on all 76 photo cards, especially since some of them are per-order exclusives. I really do not think it is fair, especially since most of their fans are young, and don’t have a lot of money. On top of all of that, the photo book is only 84 pages. I have other albums from companies that cost around the same, but the photo books are well worth the money. Seventeen, for example, makes HUGE photo books for a few more bucks. This just didn’t feel worth it, and just felt like they are just trying to make a ton of money off of an album that really isn’t that good. If you are going to release 4 versions, and make it worth our time, please put out good music, and even better photos. Bad Starship Entertainment.
Should you buy a copy of this album? Now that the pre-order period is over, and you can’t get any of the extra stuff, I really don’t think buying a copy of this album is worth it. Stream it, and only listen to the songs that I mentioned were good in my review of the album (you can read that here). Some of you may think that I’m being harsh, and I am, but please, if I’m going to drop a ton of money on buying all four of the albums, I want to be really excited when I get them in the mail, and I wasn’t this time.
Have you ever bought something, and then been really disappointed when you finally got it? What was it? Let me know in the comments below, K-Nuggets!
사랑합니다!
–Rachel
