Kyungsoo’s ‘Popcorn’ earned me much good will due to the emotional resonance it triggers. Unfortunately, Mars is quite bland in comparison. It is pretty one-dimensional throughout, and its rather upbeat yet stagnant production doesn’t help its case. Neither does its melodies which really don’t take advantage of Kyungsoo’s stellar vocal abilities, or are as engaging as the ones in ‘Popcorn’. It’s not ‘bad’ per se, just bland.
‘Mars’ does fall under the ‘easy-to-listen’ umbrella, but what separates it from the likes of ‘Feel The POP’ is that the latter actually switches things up in the production and sports a lot more robust harmonies and melodies that keep it more engaging inspire of its overall muted nature. ‘Mars’ doesn’t really do that for me.
Besides that, I really don’t have much to say. I still have much faith in the potential of Kyungsoo’s solo career, but I hope he can recover from this misstep.
Hooks – 8
Production – 7
Vocal Delivery – 10
Overall – 7.75
K-pop Evaluated 
Leave a comment