Mark Lee is the most employed idol in K-pop. He’s a member of both NCT Dream and NCT 127, often taking off one hat to put on another between releases. He’s been a part of SuperM, SM Entertainment’s supergroup, contributed to the revolving formations of NCT U and dropped his own songs intermittently between it all. To be Mark is to be splintered.
But with first solo studio album, ‘The Firstfruit’, the Canadian K-pop star paints a picture of himself whole. Taking its title from the biblical act of dedicating the first and best of your harvest to God, across 12 deeply personal tracks, Mark lays tribute to the foundational blessings of his life – his parents, his faith and his own self-assurance.
It’s a mantra that’s compounded in the album’s opening track, ‘Toronto’s Window’, a delicate narration from Mark to himself: “Now that I can see the past with a new set of eyes / My life makes so much more sense now,” he says over plucking acoustic guitar and the sound of kids playing. “Looking back to Toronto like a window / Ever since I was born / My mom raised me like an angel / My dad taught me how to fight devils.”
‘The Firstfruit’ is at its best when Mark sings and raps about his own self-confidence. There’s a fight that comes out in his voice in songs like ‘Righteous’ (“Two bands that I represent / One time for the main event”) and ‘Fraktsiya’ (“Name somebody who can juggle three teams / Still come up with the best solo album / At the same time with no rest time”). He sprays the words out like bullets, and you get the sense that each one is a cathartic release that he’s been waiting to unleash with full creative freedom.
There are also quieter moments of the record where Mark reflects on his past with the insight of age. In ‘Raincouver’, a bouncy track that lets his often-underutilised singing voice shine, he wistfully muses about the simplicity of childhood, one that was cut short by his entry into the competitive idol system at just 13. In these moments, he leans on his Christian faith, which is the most present theme across the album and pops up almost like an easter egg in each song.
One of the most moving parts of the album is its penultimate track, an interlude that’s a recorded conversation between Mark and his mum simply called ‘Mom’s Interlude’. In crackly Korean, Mark tells his mom how long he’s been waiting to release the record and that he’s proud of its message. Juxtaposed to frenetic and grandiose offerings like ‘Righteous’ and ‘+82 Pressin’, it’s a moment of patient maturity that neatly bookends where we started in his hungry youth.
After fracturing himself into pieces for nearly a decade, Mark has crafted something of an autobiographical marvel with ‘The Firstfruit’. The world of K-pop can sometimes fall into the trap of eschewing authenticity in favour of surface-level platitudes, but the NCT star lays it all bare. This is Mark, complete and whole.
Details
- Record label: SM Entertainment
- Release date: April 7, 2025