Nollaig

It just annoys me any which way I approach it!

I think Blue Eyes is the only song on the album I actually didn't like. I'll give it a few more listens, it might grow on me.

Thanks, it's my real name too

Thank you all for the warm welcome!

I loved this song as soon as I heard it, without being entirely sure why. I also didn't realise it was Imogen Heap singing it with him - WHAT a combination! The style of the song is so completely THEM, if Imogen had done it alone, it would have been totally her style and the same goes for Mika, even though their work is quite different! I'm rambling a bit, but the point is, it's a superb combination of voices

Yeah, that's a fair point, I can go along with that I guess I'm just a little biased coz I freaking LOVE Toy Boy!

Mika On 'We Are Golden' and 'The Boy Who Knew Too Much': "(We Are Golden) is such a good starting point for the story I'm telling on the record. It's about my feelings I had when I was a teenager, and no matter how bad anything got, I always turned towards music to make myself feel like I was worth something. My second album is about feeling comfortable with the fact that I write my kind of pop music, and not apologising about anything, and in the process enabling me to drop so many of the complexes I've had over the past few years, if I'm dancing around in a bedroom on my own for my music video, it's for a reason, especially if I'm in my underwear, it's for a reason, it's a statement on my part saying, "you know what? This is how I got here, and this is how I'm gonna celebrate the fact that I am here, and keep doing what I wanna do, for the reasons that I started doing them in the first place." Mika on "Toy Boy": 'I read this interview with Paul McCartney once and he said how he always likes to combine dark lyrics with happy sounding music and he called it empowerment, and I clung to that theory and one of the people I'm really influenced by, Harry Nilsson, in a way to me is the ultimate master of doing that, very dark twisted lyrics, but with the most embrasive, almost nursery rhyme like meloldies, and it really hits you harder, it exaggerates everything really. I guess I like to combine quite dark or bitter sounding lyrics, lyrics that are quite tied down to realistic situations, but then combine it with really happy sounding music, really joyful sounding pop music, and it's that combination that I think is becoming a bit of my signature in songs.' Source: The album's 'Making Of' interview.

I think irrespective of whether Toy Boy fits on the album (and musically it is in a whole other direction, granted) it's still one of the best things the man has ever composed, and as such belongs on an album which is essentially taking a step forward.

In the case of Mika's work specifically, I generally tend to prefer the acoustic versions. For example, I prefer the original "I'm Falling" to "I See You" on the new album - I can appreciate what he's done with it, and it's growing on me, but I do prefer the original incarnation. A friend said to me that Mika said somewhere than until he's got a band or something backing his work, he's always more self-conscious about it. It's interesting then, that his acoustic work always seems (to me) to be more infused with a raw sort of passion, I think is the only way I could describe it. It's almost like by the time his work has gone through the well-oiled machine it comes out as a 'safer' version, and I definately prefer the originals/alternatives.

Wow. I've only read about half this thread (and taken notes of various ideas) because there's JUST SO MUCH!! This thread has given me other perspectives on the song, so I think I need to listen to it while considering each perspective to work out what I think. I'm pretty sure I'm going to come down on the side of it being about homosexuality or bisexuality though (but not necessarily anything to do with Mika), because at some points the posts I were reading just seemed to be getting too deep into it. There were a couple of interesting points made about the hag - firstly whether or not it's the mother of the lover. The song can actually play out that way, or it can play out as the hag being 'Georgia' or some other girl. I'm gonna have to think about that, but I don't think it's particularly relevant ANYWAY. Someone else made comments about the illustration/articulation lines being Mika pointed out the seriousness of the song - I like the sound of that. Another person made a connection between 'heart of gold' and the term associated as slang with prostitutes (but in this case, being of the smallest size meaning it's more like having 'loose morals' - another interesting view. Also, whoever pointed out about the rhythm of the music itself following a wind-up pattern - brilliant, I love it. When I next comment, I'll be mostly commenting on overall metaphors I think, and how I think it may or may not relate to Mika himself. But I do need to listen a bit more before I can decide.

Ah Susie I've known you about an hour and you're already a legend Thank you, I shall check them out posthaste!

I'm pretty certain I actually prefer I'm Falling - but I'm giving both songs more time to build their individual impressions in my head.

I think one of the most appealing things about the man is the depth of technicality put into the structuring of each song. Each song is like an entire multi-faceted event in it's own right. Superb.

I definately love the album's actual title. I just watched that link a few posts up (featuring the gut test! bless him!) and that's basically what I thought the meaning of the title was (other than the movie bit). Most teenagers feel like they know it all, so as soon as I knew the album was about his adolescence, it kinda fell into place. I do think it's a better title than 'We Are Golden' - WAG would have been alright insofar as having it as the title would have extended it's sense of achievement to the album overall, but considering the entire album is about exploring rather than reaching a peak (in my opinion) I think it's actual title is far more apt.

No! I haven't heard the live version, care to point me in roughly the right direction? I'm going to head on over to that thread later, as I want to read all the way through it. Thanks! Toy Boy is THE song that converted me - I'd always liked Mika superficially (listening to the occasional song) - but the particular piece of musical mastery that is Toy Boy is what made me decide I want to get to really know Mika and his work. So I'll be dedicating time to that thread.

I listened through The Boy Who Knew Too Much today, and I'm not going to give a song-by-song analysis in this thread (I'll save those thoughts for the individual threads!) but here are a few thoughts I had. When I heard Mika's first album, I really enjoyed it, and the most resonant aspect of it was: it was nothing if not individual. At the same time, while there's resounding determination in it, I felt it was slightly timid; the cumulative impression left on me was one of unsteady footing with massive potential. So for me, what would determine the artistic success of this second album would be Mika's attempt to grapple with that. Having now seen the Making Of (TBWKTM) interview, it's pretty clear that that was actually something Mika dealt with - he said it's a darker album, and particularly in We Are Golden he's celebrating reaching the end of "various complexes he's had over the years", as well as "getting where he is by doing what he wanted in the first place". That, I thought, was the most resonant attribute within the album. It's darker, it's more mature, it's more developed and solid I think, both emotionally and musically. While I'm not actually keen on a couple of the songs, I think they all have their place on the album; some start testing new directions musically (Dr John, Pick Up Off The Floor) on much more steady footing. It's diverse, it's quirky, it's serious and it's forward moving. I also love that Imogen Heap features on it, as I adore her work and think the duet (a new direction in itself for Mika) is superb. All in all, I didn't expect to like every single song, and I don't, but that's entirely beside the point as I think Mika achieved exactly what he needed to with this second album. :thumb_yello:

I'll take that as a compliment Susie! Definately into the intellectual side of all music. I'm not the kind of person who, upon meeting Mika, would want to touch his hair (and not just because he thinks it's a bit odd.) I'll probably be spending most of my time in the songs & art section, analyzing his lyrics Thanks to everyone else for the welcomes! x

It's very difficult to pick a favourite, but I've gone with Toy Boy for a couple of simple reasons. Firstly, it deals with a subject matter I'm quite sensitive to - being about homosexuality and homophobia (it seems), and I have a couple of gay friends who struggled with being such. Secondly, and I later saw an interview in which Mika actually voiced the thoughts I had while listening to it - he called it 'empowerment'; the combination of heavy, serious lyrics with upbeat music. He also said in that interview (the making of this album) that it's rapidly becoming his 'signature', something I would have said about this element of his work long before now. So in short, it's basically that I feel this song best represents the signature style of Mika's music so far. It's genius.

Any other Irish fans around here? Hello, hello hello! I'm Nollaig, I'm a student (well, graduate) and I'm 21. I have no idea what people write in these threads. I've been an irregular fan of Mika since Grace Kelly but without any real dedication (I tend to take a while to get into the work of most artists) - but lately I've been listening to his music more and more/reading up on interviews/bios etc and generally finding out that he seems like a really intriguing guy. Plus the music rocks, specially on the new album. Soooo here I am, with the intention of interacting with similarly-intrigued individuals!