Lee Seung Gi desperately attempts to please fans with “Meet Someone Like Me”

Though I’m aware of his previous efforts as a singer, “Meet Someone Like Me” is the first song that I have ever heard by Lee Seung Gi. It had been my assumption that he, like many singer-actors, would be either lacking in skill or originality. And like many before him, my assumptions were not debunked with this effort.

“Meet Someone Like Me” is one of those songs that idols release solely to appease fans. Like, say, to hold over fans during an artist’s stint away from them while in the army. The song itself is inoffensive and comes off more like a country croon than your run-of-the-mill K-pop ballad. Additionally, to amp up the fan-pleasing fare, the music video consists of concert and other such shots of Lee Seung Gi, interspersed with him getting a hair cut for his military service. While that is all well and good, and undoubtedly enjoyable for those who enjoy him, the entire presentation will probably do nothing for non-fans.

Arrangement-wise, “Meet Someone Like Me” is acceptably bland. The orchestration is decent and is driven by a twangy guitar and a bit of violin, which is a pairing that’s to be expected in this genre of music. However, “Meet Someone Like Me” fails as a song for one reason: Lee Seung Gi’s voice. His attempts at high notes are audibly strained and, when he is not reaching harder than Tiffany, his voice shakes like Bambi during winter. With both the high and low end of his range painfully fragile, he and is forced to rely upon his underused middle range for relief. Sadly, no amount of relief can save the song.

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I am fully aware that many idols either don’t actually sing or are poor singers, so it is not a shock to me that Lee Seung Gi is not some epic balladeer. What is shocking is that he executes every part of “Meet Someone Like Me” so poorly. In the end, the poor execution and obvious fan-pleasing makes this a MV that I can only watch on mute.