musicfreak Posted September 22, 2009 Share Posted September 22, 2009 Article (4 stars) The artist known to his mum as Michael Holbrook Penniman is a one. Out he flounced two years ago singing songs about Grace Kelly and girls with big bums, ever likely to break into a ludicrous falsetto and comporting himself like a precocious Rufus Wainwright. There were many who considered him the spawn of Satan and found his jolly camp pop as appealing as the contents of a sick bag. Not that mika should care. His debut album Life in Cartoon Motion found a home in nearly six million households worldwide. So although the Lebanese-base kitsch conductor divided people in a way that, say, Elbow do not, there were more than enough in his camp to make this second album an event. There were but two courses for Mika to take this time around. With the unfathomable reasongin that grips many successful-but-not-acclaimed stars he could opt to woo the doubters with an austere new direction. Or he could continue to go about his own business while at the same time suggesting an artistic development from the fun but flawed first record. Being no fool, there was little doubt which way Mika would head-and any that lingered will have been dispatched by the first single and title track. A glam-pop stomp of grand proportions, We are Goldenreintroduces that falsetto,utilises the services of not one but two choirs and in all probability has had many a kitchen sink tossed at it to boot.No one driven to tears by Mika in the past will abide it. For everyone else it is a terrific return-the fact that it brings to mind both the gargantuan melodrama of a Jim Steinman production and a climactic High School Musical show tune being but part of its appeal. Right it opens the album with a flourish and sets the tone for all that is to come. For while nothing as over-the-top follows, it serves notice of Mika's improved craft as a writer of great pop tunes and the degree to which he understands great pop: that is should be rendered in a bold primary colors, get to the chorus before it bores us and in doing so provoke extreme reactions. On its heels come two more surefire hits: Blame it on the girls (clipped piano, a rhythm track of clapping hands) and Rain wherein Mika calls upon the services of Madonna collaborator Stuart price to realize his inner Madge by way of prime time Pet Shop Boys. If trimming a couple of the tracks that ensue would have made it a tighter record, nothing lets the side down either. There is a brace of power ballads that echo the grown up Take That (I see You, by The Time) vaudeville (dr. John) power pop (touches you) much else that is giddily insistent and further find songs in Blue Eyes, One Foot Boy (Prince when he was fun) and Pick up off the floor, which could have belonged to Judy Garland. We get to know no more about Mika the man through any of this (the suggestion on Toy Boy tat its protagonist may be "better off with a barbie gril" is know -his sexuality remains otherwise off limits) and that too is very pop. But in writing and preforming every not, and in so doing bringing to mind everything from George Michael and the Scissor Sisters to Madonna and the Pet Shop Boys in the flush of (relative) youth, his is undoubtedly a star of the old school- and a rare one at that Indie dullards are habitually applauded for their labors, pop stars with panache less so. Yet this is a bold, daring and vibrant and album as we'll hear this year. In any event, Mika is likely to have the last laugh. Hope it hasn't been poster:thumb_yello: Oh and now a have a HUGE respect to all you post articles! It takes so much more work than I thought! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikalollipop_karla Posted September 22, 2009 Share Posted September 22, 2009 thx for posting Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christine Posted September 22, 2009 Share Posted September 22, 2009 Yeah sorry, we had it up when the article came out in the UK. http://www.mikafanclub.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19348 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
musicfreak Posted September 22, 2009 Author Share Posted September 22, 2009 Oh whoops:blush-anim-cl:Sorry....why does America havta be so behind! If someone could close this....? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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