Happy Thursday, loyal followers! This week we are back to discussing Mark's album, The Firstfruit. Instead of this being a review, this is a look back on predictions from over a week ago seeing if the songs were going to be as others and I have anticipated.
The Tracks That We Knew Would Be Connected to His Autobiography:
1. "1999"
After watching the music video, I would say that it meets or exceeds expectations as a K-Pop fan. It is more than a song, but an introduction to a life story. When I watch it with a different mindset, focusing only on the singing, these are the type of vibes that I feel through the lyrics. The dancing was cool and a standard practice in K-Pop videos, but I didn't expect that their was going to be references to late 90's computer culture with the bulky CRT monitor computers. What I did see coming though, was the hockey reference at the end. That is known as a very important sport in Toronto and Canada, and it makes sense that the producers would include that information about his birth city. I'm curious to know what others were excited about to see and listen to in this lead single of his. It is a fun an energetic music video, but it is not my favorite of Mark's music videos to listen to compared to some down this list because I prefer to listen to songs that evoke emotional, nostalgic and dramatic feelings. You should see my The Top 10 Most Emotional and Powerful Anime Intros post to see why. Really glad that I watched his music video to see how it was going to turn out (SMTown, YouTube, 2025).
2. "Toronto's Window"
Yes, this song met expectations. The instrumentals and the lyrics were the key part of this song that struck an emotional chord in my heart. It is very moving and awesome to listen to and I like the Christian like message and the tie to his origins in Toronto, there were no disappointments here. This is my favorite of the album so far because of the depth of storytelling, the ties to Christian faith and the engaging instrumentals in the background. The song is enjoyable both for the fact that I am a Christian K-Pop fan and it has a deep and nostalgic story in itself. It makes the listener not only want to get into this song, but the whole album (and perhaps his other music with NCT) because of his storytelling talent (NCT, YouTube, 2025).
3. "Raincouver"
No disappointments here! Like "1999" this song has a more playful and fun vibe, but takes a bigger focus on storytelling vs other elements such as dancing. Concerning fan engagement and the amount of views this music video has compared to "1999", it does seem significantly lower at day 10 of being out. Maybe people are more into dancing with some slight over-the-top elements shown in "1999" vs autobiographical storytelling. Neither are better than the other. It just all boils down to one's preference. Sometimes I may prefer upbeat songs like "1999" on some days and "Raincouver" on others. Again, not a review but rather an analytical look at trends in viewership. It's really interesting to see what fans like the most and how it compares and contrasts with my likes (NCT, YouTube, 2025).
4. Fratktsiya
This music video is about how I expected it to be. Before posting on the 6th in PST, I did not know that Lee Young Ji was going to be featured in the music video. I must have missed that when searching up the sources telling what the song was going to be about. The music video was "about" how I expected it to be due to it hitting harder than I originally expected. It is the most viewed video of the soundtracks of his mentioned on this list so far and it has a lot of epic beats. It is no wonder it is more mainstream than "Raincouver" because these type of tracks tend to reach wider audiences. Finally, I want to say I like the name, it has a Russian or Slavic sound in my opinion. It makes it feel very mysterious to why the name was chosen and how it relates to Mark's story (SMTOWN, YouTube, 2025).
The Tracks We Originally Didn't Know That Much About
1. "Flight to NYC"
Looking back at the prediction post, I was wrong about this track on some parts. It was not how I expected the video to be like, and that is not at all disappointing or bad, it just means I was wrong! KPopStarz was right though that it was under two minutes, which Mark, the management and production team did such a good job on presenting to fans Mark's story (Source: KPopStarz). I also really liked the piano and hip hop beats, it made the video feel more dreamy and relaxing, I was wrong to think it would feature NYC itself (NCT, YouTube, 2025).
2. Journey Mercies
It was expected that there was going to be a connection with Christian faith which I saw when watching this video. What I did not expect was the sound effects that went with his voice. Also, I did not expect that it was going to have a story board on the left. The music video met my anticipation and was very satisfying to listen to. It one of the most creative songs I have ever listened to (NCT, YouTube, 2025). As fans, we are wishing Mark well on his journey!
Conclusion
Well there you have it folks! This concludes my look at some of Mark's songs from The Firstfruit (I didn't talk about all songs from the track). It was interesting to note that the videos of his on SMTOWN got far more views than on NCT. I think that is because of non-NCT fans watching it because they are SMTOWN subscribers. Maybe they prefer faster, upbeat songs to story driver songs as well.
If there is a certain song of his you would like me to discuss that I did not on this list, please leave a comment or reach out to me at my blog email. In the next post, I may return to a formula from the past, add a short post or add in something new and creative that I never tried before. Thank you all so much for reading my update post about NCT Mark's The FirstFruit!
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