Am I the only one who feels mika's new sound is a little less unique?

[Ellenowl]

I think this is very unfortunate because as someone pointed out in another thread when Mika came on the scene he gave off an air of inclusivity, not exclusivity. He had enough of an exotic background to add a bit of glamour and he was certainly quirky but otherwise he came across like a down to earth boy who just wanted to have fun. He came from a wealthy background but rejected designer fashions in favour of what everyone was wearing on the streets of London at that time (yet at the same time had a very distinctive style about him). He was skinny but he embraced big girls. He was young and beautiful but made older people feel young again. His music was clever enough to appeal to adults but children loved the happy melodies.

 

A couple of years later he was wearing bespoke $10,000 shoes - a different pair for every day of the month it seems. Instead of having a record release party with people in the music industry, performers and fans as he had done with LICM, he had an exclusive release party for Songs For Sorrow with clothes and shoe designers and the EP was only available from his site or a clothes designer's shop.

 

His music went from being fun to being quite dark. Personally I found it interesting because I was very curious about Mika and wanted to see him open up and let the world see something beyond his 2-dimensional public image. But as was also pointed out in the other thread this was a lot less relateable for most people. When you read what fans feel they have in common with Mika now so much of it is problems - bullying, learning disabilities, feeling like an outsider. I think the average person does not really relate to this because most people are fairly social and at least when I was in school relentless bullying was very rare. Not rare in the sense that it rarely happened but that it was only ever 1 or 2 kids out of hundreds who were the victims.

 

I relate to Mika as I do to all musicians, with a mutual love of music. I want to hear their take on adult experiences since we are adults. I am not interested in angsty teen songs anymore and never related to feeling like an outsider. Since Mika was 25 years old and not Justin Bieber it wasn't really what you'd expect from him anyway. There is this rewriting of history to try to paint LICM as an album about childhood but it wasn't. It was about getting laid, a married man having a gay affair, men with big girl fetishes, Mika's struggles with the music industry, fear and struggles in the face of war.

 

To start writing about your miserable teen years several years later seems like a bit of a regression and self-indulgent. And it's something that most adults do not relate to or find an emotional connection with. Even if my teen years were miserable it's not something I would want to dwell on by listening to angsty teen songs.

 

I can understand why he chose love as a theme for TOOL and talks about joy now instead of darkness. Love is a universal thing and most fans of pop music want to hear joyous songs. Sadly it is mostly just the exclusive audience who is listening now.

 

Wow! This is so interesting! That would not be my take on things, but this really makes sense. And it definitely does seem, unfortunately, that TBWKTM caused the 'exclusivity' of TOOL, or at least the fall of popular mika.

[mamiam]

I think this is very unfortunate because as someone pointed out in another thread when Mika came on the scene he gave off an air of inclusivity, not exclusivity. He had enough of an exotic background to add a bit of glamour and he was certainly quirky but otherwise he came across like a down to earth boy who just wanted to have fun. He came from a wealthy background but rejected designer fashions in favour of what everyone was wearing on the streets of London at that time (yet at the same time had a very distinctive style about him). He was skinny but he embraced big girls. He was young and beautiful but made older people feel young again. His music was clever enough to appeal to adults but children loved the happy melodies.

 

A couple of years later he was wearing bespoke $10,000 shoes - a different pair for every day of the month it seems. Instead of having a record release party with people in the music industry, performers and fans as he had done with LICM, he had an exclusive release party for Songs For Sorrow with clothes and shoe designers and the EP was only available from his site or a clothes designer's shop.

 

His music went from being fun to being quite dark. Personally I found it interesting because I was very curious about Mika and wanted to see him open up and let the world see something beyond his 2-dimensional public image. But as was also pointed out in the other thread this was a lot less relateable for most people. When you read what fans feel they have in common with Mika now so much of it is problems - bullying, learning disabilities, feeling like an outsider. I think the average person does not really relate to this because most people are fairly social and at least when I was in school relentless bullying was very rare. Not rare in the sense that it rarely happened but that it was only ever 1 or 2 kids out of hundreds who were the victims.

 

I relate to Mika as I do to all musicians, with a mutual love of music. I want to hear their take on adult experiences since we are adults. I am not interested in angsty teen songs anymore and never related to feeling like an outsider. Since Mika was 25 years old and not Justin Bieber it wasn't really what you'd expect from him anyway. There is this rewriting of history to try to paint LICM as an album about childhood but it wasn't. It was about getting laid, a married man having a gay affair, men with big girl fetishes, Mika's struggles with the music industry, fear and struggles in the face of war.

 

To start writing about your miserable teen years several years later seems like a bit of a regression and self-indulgent. And it's something that most adults do not relate to or find an emotional connection with. Even if my teen years were miserable it's not something I would want to dwell on by listening to angsty teen songs.

 

I can understand why he chose love as a theme for TOOL and talks about joy now instead of darkness. Love is a universal thing and most fans of pop music want to hear joyous songs. Sadly it is mostly just the exclusive audience who is listening now.

 

This is a really good and well written! - and put things where they belong...

 

Love,love

me

[Gatagordinha]

I think this is very unfortunate because as someone pointed out in another thread when Mika came on the scene he gave off an air of inclusivity, not exclusivity. He had enough of an exotic background to add a bit of glamour and he was certainly quirky but otherwise he came across like a down to earth boy who just wanted to have fun. He came from a wealthy background but rejected designer fashions in favour of what everyone was wearing on the streets of London at that time (yet at the same time had a very distinctive style about him). He was skinny but he embraced big girls. He was young and beautiful but made older people feel young again. His music was clever enough to appeal to adults but children loved the happy melodies.

 

A couple of years later he was wearing bespoke $10,000 shoes - a different pair for every day of the month it seems. Instead of having a record release party with people in the music industry, performers and fans as he had done with LICM, he had an exclusive release party for Songs For Sorrow with clothes and shoe designers and the EP was only available from his site or a clothes designer's shop.

 

His music went from being fun to being quite dark. Personally I found it interesting because I was very curious about Mika and wanted to see him open up and let the world see something beyond his 2-dimensional public image. But as was also pointed out in the other thread this was a lot less relateable for most people. When you read what fans feel they have in common with Mika now so much of it is problems - bullying, learning disabilities, feeling like an outsider. I think the average person does not really relate to this because most people are fairly social and at least when I was in school relentless bullying was very rare. Not rare in the sense that it rarely happened but that it was only ever 1 or 2 kids out of hundreds who were the victims.

 

I relate to Mika as I do to all musicians, with a mutual love of music. I want to hear their take on adult experiences since we are adults. I am not interested in angsty teen songs anymore and never related to feeling like an outsider. Since Mika was 25 years old and not Justin Bieber it wasn't really what you'd expect from him anyway. There is this rewriting of history to try to paint LICM as an album about childhood but it wasn't. It was about getting laid, a married man having a gay affair, men with big girl fetishes, Mika's struggles with the music industry, fear and struggles in the face of war.

 

To start writing about your miserable teen years several years later seems like a bit of a regression and self-indulgent. And it's something that most adults do not relate to or find an emotional connection with. Even if my teen years were miserable it's not something I would want to dwell on by listening to angsty teen songs.

 

I can understand why he chose love as a theme for TOOL and talks about joy now instead of darkness. Love is a universal thing and most fans of pop music want to hear joyous songs. Sadly it is mostly just the exclusive audience who is listening now.

 

I agree with most of this and it's very well expressed.

 

The whole designer shoes and clothes thing with him.. I have just never ever "got" that. I literally couldn't be less bothered about whether or not he is wearing Louboutins, or a designer jacket.

[Julia Welcomes]

Christine wrote a really great insight. Thanks! :thumb_yello:Brilliant.

 

I agree on the most above, and I feel the same. I `ve always thought of inclusivity rather than "exclusivity", but some down-to-earth people from a wider audience are just unable to see the difference, sadly((

[nas]

Great piece written by Christine and I agree with most of it, especially this bit

I can understand why he chose love as a theme for TOOL and talks about joy now instead of darkness. Love is a universal thing and most fans of pop music want to hear joyous songs. Sadly it is mostly just the exclusive audience who is listening now.

 

given the name of this thread and discussing the 'unique-ness' of his music, my 2 cents are that no, I don't feel mika's sound is any less unique; in fact I think TOOL as an album sticks out as very unique amongst the mainstream pop albums of last year. I can see why some fans might think it's different musically, from the earlier stuff (esp TBWKTM) but the 'mika-ness' is undeniably there...I recently tried to reintroduce a casual friend to him and after she listened to some songs on TOOL online, I asked her what she thought. She said it sounded like 'all his other stuff'

 

Food for thought from a non-fan

[Dreamy_Queen]

Christine wrote a really great insight. Thanks! :thumb_yello:Brilliant.

 

I agree on the most above, and I feel the same. I `ve always thought of inclusivity rather than "exclusivity", but some down-to-earth people from a wider audience are just unable to see the difference, sadly((

 

Totally agree with you

[RAK1]

Great piece written by Christine and I agree with most of it, especially this bit

 

 

given the name of this thread and discussing the 'unique-ness' of his music, my 2 cents are that no, I don't feel mika's sound is any less unique; in fact I think TOOL as an album sticks out as very unique amongst the mainstream pop albums of last year. I can see why some fans might think it's different musically, from the earlier stuff (esp TBWKTM) but the 'mika-ness' is undeniably there...I recently tried to reintroduce a casual friend to him and after she listened to some songs on TOOL online, I asked her what she thought. She said it sounded like 'all his other stuff'

 

Food for thought from a non-fan

 

 

That's interesting.

My sisters family have never really liked his music, because all they have focused on is the falsetto in Grace Kelly, they haven't given any of his other songs a chance. So over Christmas I played my sister and niece the sampler for OOL. This time they said that he had some good songs on it, and he sounded better on this album than on Grace Kelly. They also said his songs sounded better than some of the songs they have heard on the radio lately. So from that I concluded that even though, to them, he had changed bit, he was still more unique than the present crop of pop music we have here in the UK.

If more people could hear this too, I'm sure he might just get more airplay and acceptance here in the UK. Because his sound is still unique on this album, just differently to the other two.

[Louiza]

Thoughts?

 

The Origin of Love album has honest lyrics, incredible melodies, stunning vocals and all the songs are full of emotions and heart. Therefore this is a 100% Mika album and these are 100% Mika songs. Of course he is evolving as an artist and trying new sounds etc (all true artists don't stay in the same safe place for too long) but that doesn't mean that he or his songwriting have changed. Listening to the new songs makes me feel certain of that.

[ify]

When I first heard TOOL I actually thought "NO THIS ISN'T MIKA WHAT IS HE DOING BLAH BLAH BLAH"

But then I actually listened to the songs and found out that he seems more genuine in this than LICM and TBWKTM, (Although happy ending just blows me away each time) it seems like a much warmer sound, more honest, more open and less lonely.

He appears to be more content and happier than the both the other albums, it's like the other albums he was hiding behind the little characters he created.

I've grown to love this more then the other albums because of this