After leaving SM Entertainment and NCT, Mark Lee has started to carve out a solo career in what seems to be easy-listening, Christian music. I’m neither a fan of easy-listening nor a religious person, so I’m not sure I totally understand what makes a song like this good, but I do know what makes music compelling in a general sense, so that’s the framework with which I approach a new single like Happiest.
Between its Christmas imagery and bizarre opening dialogue that lands like a poorly acted political ad, Happiest‘s music video sets an odd tone from the beginning. The song itself is a light, synth-sprinkled mid-tempo. The percussion kind of shuffles and the melody kind of moves but the mixing is strange. It feels like Mark’s vocals are filtered in from another room entirely. There seem to be a few background vocalists as well (two rooms down from him, barely audible). The instrumental sounds canned and rarely progresses from the rhythmic pattern than kicks off the song. It’s such a bizarre listen and watch.
Whether this is a symptom of a limited budget or simply regrettable choices, Happiest is an interesting case study in what happens when an idol moves from a company with huge resources to a more DIY approach. I think this can only work if the artist has a unique musical perspective and knows how to enlist talent that will draw that out in the most dynamic way. So far, I’m not seeing any of this from Mark’s post-SM career and Happiest is a real undercooked clunker.
| Hooks | 7 |
| Production | 6 |
| Longevity | 7 |
| Bias | 6 |
| RATING | 6.5 |
Grade: D
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oh mark you’ll remain on my shit list (waits for angry stans)
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A bit boring and superfluous. At least it’s better than this other Christian song.
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ok but on a more serious note the trajectory of marks career is one of the clearest case studies on how ppl in vulnerable positions fall victim to religious psychosis ive ever seen. think abt it this is a guy who started training in middle school debuted at 16 was working basically triple shifts in nct that entire time. not to mention the fact that he apparently hasnt talked to his family in a very long time
so with that case of him basically being sheltered n having part of his mind forever remain at 16 (this is a very common thing among idols sadly sooyoung from snsd was on a show talking abt how when she started seeing a therapist she learned that her brain was essentially stuck as a 17 yo n she couldnt do normal adult things like book a hotel room) (n actually he did talk on a variety show abt him having peter pan syndrome) it was the perfect storm for some1 like his new manager or wtv tf he is to come in n manipulate him down this path
n another note christian cults have long been veryyyyy prevalent in s korea like if u go online ull see ppl who live in/have been there talking abt how cults will basically go up to ppl on like every other street corner trying to get them to join like trying to chop it up w someone walking by then throwing in that they have a youth group or smthn n that they should come by. n w ppl who r already christian (like mark very outwardly has been his whole career) theyll be like “oh ur doing something else? but dont u wanna grow in ur faith?” or talking abt how they got messages from god or smthn (like that lion or wtv mark was talking abt i dont remember the exact story lmao) essentially guilting u further n further down the cults rabbit hole
so now here we have mark. full on youth group leader threw basically his entire career away out of religious psychosis (n that confederate flag shirt ofc). ya we dont like him but i honestly feel bad for him more than anything
(that or maybe he always was like this deep down but he had sms a&r by him back then. specifically i remember hearing the first half of his solo album from like 2 yrs ago was heavily edited from its first draft)
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wowwww this is long asf 😭
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Yeah his vocals aren’t hitting on certain parts. He definitely has it in him, so maybe the company needs a better vocal director. The song’s also a little boring musically, not the type of song I have in my rotation
I do really enjoy the beat and the message. I can see why this would seem quaint to the non-religious, but as a Christian I love this message and Mark’s decision to take his career seemingly downhill in order to stay faithful to what he believes. He 100% went into this knowing the hate he would receive, so mad respect to him. It’s kinda funny to see the people who cancelled him tracking all his content with a magnifying glass so they can find more things to hate 😛
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