vanessa Posted October 5, 2012 Share Posted October 5, 2012 Guardian reviewed TOOL and gave it 4 out of 5 stars http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/oct/04/mika-origin-of-love-review?newsfeed=true The PR bumph that comes with Mika's third album breezily suggests it was inspired by Laurel Canyon's dreamy soft rock and Steve Reich's proto-minimalism. If you squint you can just about see it: the sweet strumminess of Lola does have the scent of LA hippy about it, while the title track's looped percussive throb might conceivably have been influenced by Reich. But there's really no need for fanciful comparisons: the fact is, The Origin of Love is simply a good record by one of the UK's more undervalued pop songwriters. Working with Pnau's Nick Littlemore, he has cut back on the theatrics – though he can't quite stifle the odd falsetto shriek – and assembled buoyant electro swirls and layers into plush club-pop. It's arresting enough that he needn't have hauled in Pharrell Williams to mutter a verse on Celebrate (and his rap duet with Priscilla Renea on Popular will live on as one of his more incongruous encounters). The whole thing was inspired by his happily-in-love status, which just goes to show that joy doesn't always kill creativity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cathouzouf Posted October 5, 2012 Share Posted October 5, 2012 (edited) Found this review from one of Quebec best and thoughest critic (no clue if the video will work outside of Canada) http://www.musiqueplus.com/videos/mika-the-origin-of-love-critique-1.1069078 translation Origin of love is the title of Mika's 3 album. Mika is a lebanese singer who grew up in Paris and London. Very popular in Quebec and Europe, particularly in France because he sings in French too. Not very well known in the USA, they haven't understand anything yet... I didn't know his other 2 albums. I was introduced to Mika by the song Make you happy. I knew he was singing a bit like Freedie mercury. I love Make you happy and was expecting the same for the remainder of the album, a bit of elctro... Unfortunately, make you happy is the only one one of its kind on the album. With the very first song, we are reminded of Freddie. But with such a good voice, why the need to copy autotune so much, I don't understand. Also, I understand he can get from very high notes to very low notes in a second but does he have to do it 40 times in a row? Obviously not my kind of singer! Very light pop, reminds me of the norvegian group A-ha (although I prefer their albums). Sometime, we have the feeling he wants to do very commercial music, but didn,t get all the way through. Emily and stardust are good example. I prefer Gaga's remix. he looses me with the euro-techno-testo-like songs like Celebrate. The production is bland, his compositions are old-fashioned. It's OK but not much more. Extract of Make you happy. This one is good, but only this one. One the positive side: this guy also have a DESTROY feature on his show, so the fact that Mika was not featured in it is a victory in itself:wink2: Edited October 5, 2012 by cathouzouf Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christine Posted October 5, 2012 Share Posted October 5, 2012 Obviously not my kind of singer!... Celebarate is not my tatse at all. Is this supposed to be a serious critique of the album? It's not his taste? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikaMadLuke Posted October 5, 2012 Share Posted October 5, 2012 (edited) The Irish Times: The Origin of Love Island *** Those irritated by Mika’s polarising falsetto will be happy to know the singer has toned it down for his third album. Unfortunately for fans of songs such as Love Today and Grace Kelly, it seems the gap left by the singer’s bubbly pop theatrics has been filled by something entirely less appealing. All too often, The Origin of Love sounds like a sterile, synthesised club soundtrack. Stardust and Overrated reveal nothing of Mika’s personality, while Pharrell Williams’s input on Celebrate seems rather tokenistic. Despite those missteps, there’s much to like. Lola’s Fleetwood Mac-meets- Bee Gees vibe is super, Kids inventively pairs a glitchy beat with an acoustic guitar, and Make You Happy vaguely references Pet Shop Boys. It’s certainly a new angle for Mika, but one you suspect even he isn’t completely comfortable with. Edited October 5, 2012 by robertina Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cathouzouf Posted October 5, 2012 Share Posted October 5, 2012 Is this supposed to be a serious critique of the album? It's not his taste? Yes it is. Some parts are hard to translate, as they are in slang. Blame it on the translator. In my book, Rajotte is one of the most knowledgable critics in Quebec TV, and one of the thoughest too. I've seen him throw CDs in the garbage or breaking vinyls (show how long he's been around) Unfortunately, he's also the one one who did a review in hte album. Even La Presse didn't, yet. I emailed one of their critics this weeks, asking why and she told me there was too many albums out and said she would listen to it. My hopes are not very high to see something in tomorrow's paper though:sneaky2: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christine Posted October 5, 2012 Share Posted October 5, 2012 In my book, Rajotte is one of the most knowledgable critics in Quebec TV, and one of the thoughest too. I've seen him throw CDs in the garbage or breaking vinyls (show how long he's been around) Anyone who thinks that "it's not my taste" is valid way to critique something is also one of the most egomaniacal critics IMO. I mean who cares if it's not your taste? That tells people nothing of the quality or even the content unless this guy believes that only music that's his taste is good music. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suzie Posted October 5, 2012 Author Share Posted October 5, 2012 Is this supposed to be a serious critique of the album? It's not his taste? He may be serious but not knowlegeable for sure. It would show up in what he writes, whether he likes something or not... first page updated - I created a separate section for fan critics from the net Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cathouzouf Posted October 5, 2012 Share Posted October 5, 2012 He may be serious but not knowlegeable for sure. It would show up in what he writes, whether he likes it or not... Like I said to Christine, I summarize some parts because they were hard to translate. His sentence was more something like "he looses me with the euro-techno-testo-like songs like Celebrate" (I'll go change the previous post). So maybe it's best not to judge his knowledge by my poor translation skills:mf_rosetinted: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cathouzouf Posted October 5, 2012 Share Posted October 5, 2012 He may be serious but not knowlegeable for sure. It would show up in what he writes, whether he likes something or not... first page updated - I created a separate section for fan critics from the net can you put the Rajotte review I posted in the first post please? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christine Posted October 5, 2012 Share Posted October 5, 2012 So maybe it's best not to judge his knowledge by my poor translation skills:mf_rosetinted: Oh shame, okay. I thought he was just an ass. Thanks for your efforts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suzie Posted October 5, 2012 Author Share Posted October 5, 2012 Like I said to Christine, I summarize some parts because they were hard to translate. His sentence was more something like "he looses me with the euro-techno-testo-like songs like Celebrate" (I'll go change the previous post). So maybe it's best not to judge his knowledge by my poor translation skills:mf_rosetinted: actaully, I didn't mean the wording but his reasoning / the content. Your translation is fine. He may be a good writer but doesn't come across to me as knowledgeable on music. of course that's just one piece he may have been reluctant to write so I could be wrong, that's only my first impression .. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suzie Posted October 5, 2012 Author Share Posted October 5, 2012 can you put the Rajotte review I posted in the first post please? I have cut them all and insterted them into Robi's new thread containing critics reviews only. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cathouzouf Posted October 5, 2012 Share Posted October 5, 2012 actaully, I didn't mean the wording but his reasoning / the content. Your translation is fine.He may be a good writer but doesn't come across to me as knowledgeable on music. of course that's just one piece he may have been reluctant to write so I could be wrong, that's only my first impression .. He doesn,t write, he has a TV show on Musique PLus (the equivaltent of MTV in Quebec) so it's a translated transcript from a video. No, I don,t think he was reluctant to write because he put the Make You Happy short film in his "favorites" songs on his website. I think he was just truly disappointed with the album as he was expecting something more in line with Make you Happy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cathouzouf Posted October 5, 2012 Share Posted October 5, 2012 I have cut them all and insterted them into Robi's new thread containing critics reviews only. I saw and copies mine there too:thumb_yello: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robertina Posted October 5, 2012 Share Posted October 5, 2012 I have cut them all and insterted them into Robi's new thread containing critics reviews only. link http://www.mikafanclub.com/forums/showthread.php?t=27459 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaryElizabethhB Posted October 25, 2012 Share Posted October 25, 2012 So here's my review. I posted it in another thread already but it was suggested to me to post it here as well. Hope you all enjoy it! It's a bit long so I'll just post the link to my blog where it is: http://maryelizabethhb.wordpress.com/?p=481&preview=true Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julia Welcomes Posted October 27, 2012 Share Posted October 27, 2012 (edited) Hi, read my review here. There`s nothing new for die-hard mikafans, but it might be intersting to all newbies. So welcome:blush-anim-cl: “The Origin of Love” Review by Julia Welcomes. (Attention! No objectivity shown. ) It`s hard to write my own review of the album that I`d never call my most favorite. But it was worth waiting. Knowing beforehand the album would sound rather experimental I collected my worries and explained them as Mika`s financial-strategic goals, or his wish to attract American audience. Or that could be just his creative search after all. Anyway, “The Origin of Love” looks like: - A bit of electro, as Mika promised. We can clearly hear vocoders, multiple sound effects and “synthetic” sound. - It`s Mik`s, but also Nick`s . Yeap, Nick Littlemore (Empire of the Sun) made a greatest creative input among various album`s collaborations. - A general feeling - it is balanced. Mr. Penniman is peaceful today, satisfied with the way things go and - as we all know – he`s happily in love. No more teen crises. The bliss is all around, which undoubtedly affected his music. “The Origin of Love” is not unique, in contrast to the previous albums. It doesn`t blast your reality with first-time-amazing precious sounds. You don`t feel trembling or heartbeat when you press “play”. But if you can`t hear beautiful melodies and Mika`s inimitable voice behind all this electro-tinsel, you are 100% deaf, possibly. And if you can - the album needs no justification. Album`s best The Origin of Love is the greatest revelation here. No doubts. Having such huge potential it`s the one to be discovered step-by-step. Each listening amazes you. This is a defiant love anthem, full of religious connotations (“good” pop music usually shuns that). It combined incongruous things: a prayer, Mika`s vocoded voice, a chorus and electro-beat, a simple melody and a complicated structure with no standard verses. The song shows laconism of a pop-hit but also the brilliant music intellect. I recall Touches You (so unfairly underrated) as similarity. And Nothing Fails by Madonna. But be sure this is brand new Mika, his creative triumph. Underwater is another jewel. Unlike The Origin of Love, it represents best lyrical Mika. The piano is back! It`s perfect, pure and complete. As good as I See You and Lady Jane. I immediately liked Lola because it surely belongs to Mika. This is so Mika! He sings tenderly about another downright whore\ good gone girl cheerfully clapping his hands… Oh Mika - why do you love that kind of stories `bout that kind of girls? You break my heart as I`ll never become Lola-like. So you`ll never write a song for me . Step with me requires my advocacy because it`s been attacked by reviewers and has got a “primitive pop” label. Well… may be it doesn`t sound like Mika initially but think of Blue Eyes ! Do you remember its unusual rhythm? Step with me is… reggae! Come on, listen to it: the rhythm is positively-hypnotizing, like sea ruffle. And melodic naivety reflects a story itself - «I see my Darling….I fall in love madly…..imagining our wedding….top it with a cherry…..it doesn`t matter you don`t even know me….you`re 3 steps away from me». It`s foolish but so sweet. Don`t forget to turn on your irony when listen to Mika. “+” Experiments Stardust is an explosive club hit ex facte. But scrape off the hull and you`ll find a pure diamond, shiny and clear. The melody is delightful. (It was not without reason live Stardust has won our hearts!) Love You When I`m Drunk is expression, expression, expression! If I didn`t know Mika I`d thought of Scissors Sisters. Mika united successfully his singing manner with synthetic accompaniment. Popular Song is a bit of recitative, a bit of musical… Add a little Mika, some Priscilla, then mix and shake .Ta Dah! The positive vitamin cocktail is done! Kids makes my heart sing when I hear acoustic instruments. Guitars, drums, strings are all here. The kids are growing up and Californian summer ends. That reminds me of Eagles I cant tell you why. But what is it mikafans should love this song for? Heroes is another nice ballad to continue Kids. Kids grew up and left for a war. Though the song is supplemented with echo-sound effects, it doesn`t move me much. Emily hasn`t lost its charm in English. But all I can say is - “dance dance dance” . “- “ Experiments. Make You Happy is unusual but “stuck in the middle”. It is lost somewhere between genres and is short of that magical ingredient that`s nearly found…. Overrated clearly belongs to club music. That disappoints me the most along with the strange sound effects. Listen to Celebrate if you search for a mass summer hit, as standard as it could be. Do you wanna hear a nice uncomplicated tune sung by Mika? This way, please. PS. I prefer to write honestly about the album songs I love and I don`t. That`s because I hold dear all done by Mika. The album was worth waiting. I recommend it to everyone who thinks that “light hearing” is never clever and high class. Guys you`re so wrong. Edited October 28, 2012 by Julia Welcomes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
enigma Posted October 28, 2012 Share Posted October 28, 2012 I have put the CD back on the shelf as I find most of it utterly dull, and I doubt I will never listen to it again. However, I have created a 7-track mini-album (Origin Of Love, Karen, L'Amour Dans Le Mauvais Temps, Un Soleil Mal Lune, Tah Dah, and the original acoustic version of Overrated) which I'm very pleased with and which I will listen to with a sigh of relief as it proves my favourite artist can still write proper music when he puts his mind to it... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now