Mika – The Boy Who Knew Too Much – 2009 (iTunes Amazon)
How do I convince you that you should pick up the new Mika album? Certainly describing it as Freddie Mercury meets Elton John with a dash of George Michael and a less disco-scene Scissor Sisters and a whole lot of over production isn’t gonna do it. Is it?
The Boy Who Knew Too Much is more of the Mika we loved on Life in Cartoon Motion. The boy who loves to dress up and go clubbing club with “big girls” but who is just as happy sitting at home and watching Bogie and Bacall movies.
He certainly knows how to write a hook even if it’s all very familiar.
The opening track “We Are Golden” is catchy as hell if it does sound like a car commercial. “Blame it on the Girls” is the catchiest track Mika’s come up with, a cha cha number that has me looking forward to hitting the boards with Beth.
But the album doesn’t let up from there. “Rain”, “Dr. John” it’s one discotheque anthem after another. If you want a record that’s going to make it feel like sunshine when it’s raining, or make you want to drop the top and crusie up the coast, this is it. Pop confection at its best. Never trying to be more than it is and reveling in it’s own happy.
The lush balladeering of the previous album is back (“I See You”) but’s more anthemic than before.
Needs some quasi-calypso island tracking for your tropical adventure? How about “Blue Eyes”? Pining for a little musical theater? “Toy Boy” is this album’s “Billy Brown” only it’s even better. Or “Good Girl Gone” which takes the place of uber-catchy hip-shaking “Grace Kelly” single.
Can we forgive Mika that “Touches You” steals so blatently from George Michael’s “Father Figure”? Hell, yes. Remember how catchy that song was? (Or maybe it was just the MTV played it every 4th song…no, it was a perfect pop confection. And, no doubt, Mika, born a year before that track was a hit, was raised on that kind of music. It fits perfectly that he would find himself musing on the same musical vocabulary.
Here’s the deal. I think I’ve adequately explained this record. If you read this and this sounds like something you would like, get it. I think you’ll like it.
Grade A
A Side: We are Golden, Blame it on the Girls, Good Girl Gone…hell, all of it. This album’s great.
Downside: Well, almost. “Pick up off the floor” is a bit too much for me. But that’s just me. I suppose someone more appreicative of Diva warbling and torch songs might appreciate it.
Certainly describing it as Freddie Mercury meets Elton John with a dash of George Michael and a less disco-scene Scissor Sisters and a whole lot of over production isn't gonna do it. Is it?
Yes.