mouselle Posted March 19, 2008 Share Posted March 19, 2008 I can't work out when this was written - presumably about a year ago, but it made me laugh a lot! :roftl: Ignore that the reviewer is not a fan- it's well written and amusing. If you check out the link, there are pictures to go with the jibes. http://music.guardian.co.uk/pickardofthepops/page/0,,2066227,00.html This week Anna Pickard watches and picks apart... Love Today by Mika Lights up. The video begins. In a radical departure, the usually flamboyant and ostentatious Mika stands still, calm, pensive. For approximately 0.8 seconds. And then he's back to normal. In what looks for all the world like a deserted munitions factory, the flamboyant Mika, who has seen fit to dress his entire backing band like a punnet of tomatoes, starts his three minute Freddy Mercury impression (for people whose only experience of Freddy Mercury is the 30-foot statue of a man pointing to the sky outside of the We Will Rock You musical). Certainly, if Freddy was the undisputed King of Pointing To The Sky, Mika is a worthy contender for the crown, as he does point skyward very well. He is also very good at pointing at himself, which he does every time he says the word "me". I make a point of mentioning the word "me", as I'm afraid once the singing bit starts, it's pretty much the only word I can work out. Love me, love, love me, he keeps repeating, as repetitive patterns of lights flash behind him in carefully timed rhythm. Love Mika. Love love Mika. Must Love Mik... Stone me! The clever swine has raided the prop cupboard of the National Association of Evil Geniuses and stolen all the visual aids from their How to Hyponotise The Populace Into Carrying Out Your Dastardly Plan seminar! As if to prove the point, Mika is suddenly joined by a small troop of bouncing victims. Or "dancers", as I think they might be known. It starts with some vogue-ing silhouettes that promise a classy David Fincher/Madonna-style production, but 60 seconds in, that's out the window and all Mika's stage school friends in stripy neon Primark jumpers are skipping about in very happy fashion. Bounce bounce bounce. I'm not quite getting the overall concept for this video. Oh look, here's a burlesque dancer. And a lamp post. Maybe it is a street-burlesque concept. Whatever. It seems like what looked like a deserted munitions (or custard, whatever) factory at first has now turned out to be a theatre, and it's looking ever more likely that Mika and the Kids From Fame have taken over their school amphitheatre and declared that they're "going to do the show right here!" One of them has dug out her Halloween burlesque costume, and she's excitedly trying to insert a piece of street furniture into her leotard. We move to a "café" set left over from their ground-breaking premiere of EastEnders: The Musical at the end of last term. The stage school posse sit around looking studiously bored, including the burlesque lady, who has dismounted the outdoor lighting solution and is busily acting out ennui. Suddenly another chorus kicks in. Mika picks up a chair and waves it in the air. On cue, everyone starts dancing - as is always the way in Drama School, very little excuse is needed to get up and start flailing about like a fool. I know, I went to one. The collected luvvies are wilfully uncoordinated in their eye-burningly bright outfits. Watching them all collectively jiving resembles nothing so much as that moment at the toddler's birthday party when the birthday boy, having eaten nothing but Skittles all day, suddenly goes peaky and throws up in the trifle. And all the while, the catchy-as-crabs single bounds along, working its way further into your brain with every passing moment, even, and I can't reiterate this enough, even if you CAN'T work out what the damn words are. I think I've figured out something about being up a tree? In love with a bee? Having a dodgy knee? But apart from that the only thing I'm sure of is the line "Channelling a bugger with a big moustache, big moustache, big moustache" which even now is swimming round and round my head like an eel trying to pleasure itself orally. The kids from Fame are having a simply marvellous time. As well they might, you never know when that Hollywood agent might be sitting in the stalls, just looking for someone who looks like Fred Astaire (if Fred Astaire had survived solely on a diet of uppers, Diet Coke and pureed Cheshire cats). In a moment of unparalleled surrealism, a small, mousey-blonde child gets placed inside a giant cake, and re-emerges seconds later as a big, fat, pudding-bowl-haircutted bloke in a pink dress. And that, my friends, is why you should never try to eat your way out of a Hormone Cake. The song is coming to an end, and as the curtains part, the Mika's willing stage school pals are trying to give us a message, communicating only through the medium of ginormous letters. What are they trying to tell us? What word are they trying to produce? Vole? Velo? Evol? Aha! It IS an Evil plan, I told you! Typical actors, though. They may be able to emote, but they sure as hell can't spell. Eventually, after trying all the permutations possible, we discover the word. Apparently, it was LOVE they were having so much trouble with. And with one more nod to his 70s influences, this time in the shape of the Ministry of Funny Walks... Mika is gone. Gone, but not forgotten, as those of us left behind are left with the chirpy-falsetto, fluffy, happy-happy pop song stuck on loop for hours, days and weeks to come. Mika's evil plan is only just beginning. Within several months of first contact, millions of people will be forced to love, love Mr Mika. OR will have cut their heads off in a last-ditch attempt to end the happy-Mika-brain-worm. One or the other. Watch it here. And don't say I didn't warn you. Speaking as some-one who carefully cultivates and feeds the 'happy-Mika-brain-worm', and re-instates the 'chirpy-falsetto, fluffy, happy-happy song stuck on loop' whenver it threatens to fail, I am so glad Mika songs are so 'sticky'. But I do notice Mika apologises for it every now and then. My million dollar questionis how he gets one song out of his own head for long enough to write another... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue Sky Posted March 19, 2008 Share Posted March 19, 2008 What a funny review. I like the stickiness too. But your million dollar question is one someone should really ask the Big M. He must drive all his friends and family nuts as he hatches another of his sticky numbers... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daydreambeliever Posted March 19, 2008 Share Posted March 19, 2008 ! It was well written and amusing, despite that the reviewer isn't too ecstatic about the video...Thanks for posting! When Love Today wouldn't get out of my head (I mean, it absolutely refused) about a year ago, I thought the longest it would be there was a month. Tops. I was wrong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CaroLollipop Posted March 19, 2008 Share Posted March 19, 2008 :roftl: Thanks for posting! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
katydid1994 Posted March 19, 2008 Share Posted March 19, 2008 Quote: And all the while, the catchy-as-crabs single bounds along, working its way further into your brain Catchy as crabs, that's new LOL, thanks for posting Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mouselle Posted March 19, 2008 Author Share Posted March 19, 2008 What a funny review. I like the stickiness too. But your million dollar question is one someone should really ask the Big M. He must drive all his friends and family nuts as he hatches another of his sticky numbers... Lol! And he says he forced his family to listen to all his songs! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mari62 Posted March 19, 2008 Share Posted March 19, 2008 T4P! "Watch it here. And don't say I didn't warn you":naughty: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greta Posted March 19, 2008 Share Posted March 19, 2008 those @ The Guardian are feckin brilliant!!! The "everyday objects" interview to Mika is one of my fav too! btw,save this address Have you seen a good video recently that you think should be featured in this column? If so, write to me at anna.pickard@guardian.co.uk and let us know what it is, and why ... we all want another Mka vid review from that journalist, innit?! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IngievV Posted March 19, 2008 Share Posted March 19, 2008 :lmfao: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lilacmandie Posted March 19, 2008 Share Posted March 19, 2008 really good read, thanks for posting:thumb_yello: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mika_Addiction Posted March 20, 2008 Share Posted March 20, 2008 Haha. Very funny! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gatagordinha Posted March 20, 2008 Share Posted March 20, 2008 That really made me laugh out loud, thanks! Channelling a bugger with a big moustache........ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lollipop_monkey Posted March 20, 2008 Share Posted March 20, 2008 That was one of the very first reviews I ever read when I first discovered Mika and went on a weeklong sleepless Google binge. I'd want to slap her if the things she wrote weren't so freakin' funny. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
guylainem123 Posted March 20, 2008 Share Posted March 20, 2008 easy to tell the writer is not a fan lol but she can't tell the words?? they are very clear to me! but she does admit that he is catchy ;o) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
guylainem123 Posted March 20, 2008 Share Posted March 20, 2008 That was one of the very first reviews I ever read when I first discovered Mika and went on a weeklong sleepless Google binge. I'd want to slap her if the things she wrote weren't so freakin' funny. lol i know what you mean slap her silly! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
findingmywords Posted March 20, 2008 Share Posted March 20, 2008 I read this once before... somewhere... a long time ago.. far away It's great! thanks for posting! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
juju27 Posted March 20, 2008 Share Posted March 20, 2008 hilarious and great review, loved it! especially with all your little:biggrin2: details and remarks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xlindee Posted March 20, 2008 Share Posted March 20, 2008 That was one of the very first reviews I ever read when I first discovered Mika and went on a weeklong sleepless Google binge. I'd want to slap her if the things she wrote weren't so freakin' funny. Yeah, I read it too, it looks familiar. It's funny:naughty: easy to tell the writer is not a fan lolbut she can't tell the words?? they are very clear to me! but she does admit that he is catchy ;o) Yeah, but you know the lyrics! She doesn't... The first time I heard Love Today the words weren't very clear to me either! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OhMyMika!! Posted March 20, 2008 Share Posted March 20, 2008 Brilliant! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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