It's happy, it's fun, it's dramatic... It's Mika. My new favorite (thanks for the heads up, Bret). We listened to it this morning during Mike's Happy Birthday breakfast, and I think that I may have had a spring in my step as I walked to work. It's that happy (and we all know how I feel about happy music, generally speaking. I prefer dreary to happy). Per Amazon in the UK:
The pop world might be all cooing 'n' cross-eyed over this flamboyant elfin with extended tail-feathers, as if it were shaken suddenly from a slumber, but the arrival of such a character was in fact always inevitable. He's an unlikely but traceable amalgamation of random pop culture explosions from the past few years--two parts Paulo Nutini, one part Kemal from Big Brother, a dash of Daphne & Celeste, a barrel measure of Scissor Sisters, and another pinch of post-ironic dancing to Elton John at the Students' Union gone midnight... Mika will split opinion--but his quasi-soul falsetto is unbelievable, that much is immediately obvious. There are moments nearing syrupy Feeling-esque normalcy (take "My Interpretation"), but those aside it's high camp insatiability all the way. There's a hint of Freddie Mercury’s theatricality in the voice, and in "Big Girl" he's even written a modern day "Fat Bottomed Girls". "Lollipop" is Jake Shears leading the Jackson 5, "Love Today" is the missing link between the Bee Gees and Village People and "Relax, Take It Easy" is a chilled Pet Shop Boys in gold lamé. Too cheesy to be a classic, perhaps, but this is just the brand of subversive eccentricity Robbie has failed miserably to achieve over his past few albums. .. `Historic', `sensational', `flamboyant' and `without-any-doubt original' are just some of the adjectives being thrown around by critics in praise of 22 year-old UK newcomer, Mika's eclectic debut album, Life In Cartoon Motion.
2 comments:
Totally with you on this one. Good stuff. It's different. I heard it on the radio and saw the guy perform on TV. His look definitely matches his sound.
Yay! Someone else has heard of Mika! :) I think it is so fun. Very, very happy music. And I like unique, too.
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