The dark edges of Mika's deceptively sunny pop

[Droopsy]

The dark edges of Mika's deceptively sunny pop

October 23, 2009 | 7:30 am

 

As far as Oedipal odes to obsessively consuming every shred of a new lover’s individual identity go, Mika’s song “Touches You” from his new album “The Boy Who Knew Too Much” is actually pretty charming. It's a rollicking, vampy piano-pop burner with a seriously creepy chorus: “I want to be your sister, and your mother too / I want to be whatever else that touches you.”

 

Nick Cave could be jealous of a lyric like that. But for the young singer-songwriter, it’s a prime example of the power of pop music to make uncomfortable truths go down easily.

 

“Pop enables you to hoodwink people,” Mika said. “If you follow certain formulas and structures, people gravitate to a song and attach themselves to it, they instantly ‘get’ it. And once you’ve got them, you can get them to sing along to something bitterly sad.”

 

There’s not much that’s bitterly sad on “The Boy Who Knew Too Much,” however. It might well be the most abjectly joyful thing on pop radio right now. But it’s a weird kind of joy, one purposefully preoccupied with the trappings of adolescence -- the terrors of nascent sexuality, hormone-driven defiance and overblown emotions that warrant no less than full string sections to document them.

 

For Mika, it was a perfect time to write an album about growing up, because in many ways he hadn’t. After the unexpected multimillion international sales of his debut album “Life In Cartoon Motion,” the 26-year-old woke up from a flurry of touring to realize he was, in many ways, right where he left off emotionally. This was a problem, as “Cartoon Motion” was something of a intentional respite from some deep feelings of isolation.

 

“I’ve never been very comfortable in my own skin. There’s always been a big disparity between my shows and real life,” Mika said. “It felt like my life was on pause. I can’t hold a relationship, and I still live in the same studio I’ve lived in for nine years. Sometimes I wondered if music went all to hell for me, if I would have absolutely nothing left. But I had to remind myself that was the same desperation I felt when I was 17, and that it was OK to still feel that way.”

 

He acclimated to those feelings by becoming something of a neighborhood eccentric while recording ”Boy,” eating meals at the same time in the same places every day. “The people who ran the flower stand nearby would set their watches to me,” he said.

 

But the end result is an effervescent pop tableau. “We Are Golden” and “Blame It On the Girls” are pure cynic-Teflon, sneakily perfect tunes packed deep into a confetti cannon. Mika tackles a surprising breadth of genres, from margarita-ready folk on “Blue Eyes” to shimmering techno-pop on “Rain,” but it all plays to his strengths -- namely, his campy falsetto range and knack for wringing instant, sticky melodies out of huge word counts. It’s defiant, flagrant pop music as its own idiosyncratic genre.

 

“Pop became such a dirty word in the ‘90s. In the ‘70s and ‘80s, pop was glorious,” he said. “Bowie was pop. The Beatles were pop. The thing that kills pop is when it becomes a vehicle for a lifestyle or aspirations. I don’t want to be drinking Moet in videos, I want people to feel OK about themselves.”

 

For Mika, being a pop star on the cutting edge of is-he-or-isn’t-he sexuality (he’s appeared on the cover of the gay-focused magazine Out but hasn’t publicly defined his sexuality) only underscored the tricky lines he has to walk both in music and as a public figure.

 

But that’s the power that pop music gives you, he says. It makes big, tough ideas about identity and adulthood a bit easier to grasp. And maybe that makes him a bit more dangerous a singer than you might think.

 

“I’m a bit of a Cheshire cat,” he said. “The teeth are sinister but the power is in the smile.”

 

-August Brown

 

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/music_blog/2009/10/the-dark-edges-of-mikas-deceptively-sunny-pop-.html

[IngievV]

Love the last sentence. Very true:thumb_yello: T4P!

[xlindee]

Nice article! Thanks for posting!

[Marilyn Mastin]

Great article! T4P. More publicity in America for our boy!

[Kodes100]

Wow!

Not only is this a good review & article but this is in L.A. California!!

I love the line: "An effervescent pop tableau."

Bravo August Brown - you get it!

[laura*]

:wub2:

[hunnyangel]

thanks for sharing x

[Soaring Simpson]

Now that's the sort of interview I like to see- interesting to me and surely good for MIka!

[tiibet]

I loved this one! Thanks for posting!!

[Dark Angel]

Niiiiiiice! Thx for posting

[vanessa]

“Pop became such a dirty word in the ‘90s. In the ‘70s and ‘80s, pop was glorious,” he said. “Bowie was pop. The Beatles were pop. The thing that kills pop is when it becomes a vehicle for a lifestyle or aspirations. I don’t want to be drinking Moet in videos, I want people to feel OK about themselves.

 

I love this sentence

[sienna]

Now that's the sort of interview I like to see- interesting to me and surely good for MIka!

 

Agree!

 

Thanks for posting!

[purplegrape]

Very fantastic interview

 

Thanks for posting

[willywonka]

I've got no time to read it now, but, very briefly, which exact edges of Mika is this all about?

 

Depending on which edges it is, i guess i can postpone my family's dinner...lolz

[FREDDIESDOUBLE]

Thanks for posting

 

"“The people who ran the flower stand nearby would set their watches to me,” he said."

 

One of the stalkers .. I can see their sales going up

[RAK1]

T4P:thumb_yello:

This is a fantastic review and interview, love the way it's been written, and what they say about Touches You, is spot on:naughty:

[mikalollipop_karla]

awww

[kath]

T4P...................it took me forever to work out what that meant:naughty:

 

Great review.

[silver]

A really good review - T4P:thumb_yello:

[englishrose]

LOVE it!

 

*points out signature*

 

[Pideh]

That was really nice! Thanks for posting!

[Louiza]

haha love the chesire cat reference!

t4p

[dianesellner78]

great article!!! thanks for posting : )

[Fmbm]

My mom just handed me this article in the paper, except it's titled "Mika, true to himself" instead

[omdeliom]

A joy to read a review by someone who really gets it! Thanks for posting...

 

The following line from a review I came upon (of The Boy Who Knew Too Much) really hits on how I feel about Mika:

 

"I love to see an artist of Mika’s brilliance grow-up right in front of me. The thought of what the next decade will musically offer with this man (though he still refers to himself as a boy) is the single most exciting consideration for me as a music fan in about 15 years. I mean it."

http://www.closetkawaii.com/2009/10/kawaii-music-mika-the-boy-who-knew-too-much-review/

 

I also 10000% agree with Kodes100 - I LOVE the thought of "MIKA AND AUSTRALIAN BAZ LUHRMANN CREATING A MUSICAL, ARTISTIC, SPECTACULAR EVENT!"