|
 With a flamboyance that has seen him
compared to everyone from Scissor Sisters’ Jake Shears to Elton John and
Freddie Mercury, Beirut-born, London-based singer-songwriter Mika has a
lot of hype to live up to with his debut album, Life in Cartoon Motion.
Luckily for him, he does just that with track after track of buoyant and
bohemian pop.
Life in Cartoon Motion is a cute album. Playful, flirty, happy and
without a care in the world, Mika flexes his falsetto over grandiose
songs about life, love and all that such things contain.
There’s a wonderful childlike quality skipping through many of these
lovingly crafted, upbeat songs, yet there’s also a hint of maturity in
the way each tune is put together; stringing influences together with a
gentle diligence before throwing them up in the air and spinning around
at speed like a fairground ride.
This is perhaps Mika’s most endearing quality. Here we have a guy who
produces the kind of sweet, uplifting pop that is likely to bother the
charts for a long time to come and get stuck in the heads of all who
come across it. However, there’s an air of experience and maturity about
him that leaves Mika standing head and shoulders above many of his
contemporaries in the pop world.
Sure, this is nothing but a fun album designed to get people singing and
dancing, but it’s the sort of album you suspect Mika wanted to make,
rather than an album churned out by the record companies to appeal to
the masses and shift units.
Highlights come in the form of recent single, ‘Grace Kelly, as well as
the jolly romp that is ‘Big Girl’, described as a modern day ‘Fat
Bottomed Girls’ that playfully mocks the idea that to be thin is to be
beautiful.
Yet, truth be told, there really isn’t a bad tune to be found.
OK so some songs are better than others, but ultimately, Life in Cartoon
Motion is a brilliant little album of pure pop magic that should surely
see Mika shine as one of the brightest stars of 2007.
Recommended Links:
►
www.mikasounds.com
►
www.myspace.com/mikamyspace
►
Return to Album
Reviews
|
