MIKA in US Press - 2015

[BiaIchihara]

‘No Place In Heaven’ Is Mika at His Best (Album Review)

 

http://popcrush.com/no-place-in-heaven-mika-album-review/?trackback=fbshare_mobile

 

Infused with the kind of vibrancy and color more often reserved for a LSD-fueled dream sequence, Mika first spilled into the mainstream pop scene back in 2007 with his first hit, “Grace Kelly.” Comparisons to Freddie Mercury notwithstanding, the general public (at least here in the U.S.) wasn’t quite sure what to make of him, oddball pop star sensibilities and all. He arrived with a propensity for the flamboyant, the over-the-top, the theatrical — and he did it all without a modicum of irony or self-parody.

The sincerity in Mika’s exaggeration was refreshing because it was new. And even with the release of his fourth studio album, No Place In Heaven, he remains as eccentric as ever.

Pop is often categorized as either bubblegum or mature, as if the two are mutually exclusive. In order to fall into the revered, Pitchforkian-approved group of Mature Pop you need a quirk. You need less color. You need to Say Something. And while the hues in Mika’s world have certainly faded a bit with his last two releases (2012′s The Origin of Love and 2015′s No Place In Heaven), that doesn’t make his music any less smart or thoughtful or worthy.

Mika never strays too far from his signature Broadway-lite piano pop on No Place In Heaven. He stays true to his sound, and while for many artists that may signal a lack of willingness to evolve, it works for Mika. He remains firmly rooted in who he is as an artist and he knows what works best for him. That’s not to say No Place in Haven is a carbon-copy of his past releases: The true difference here is in the album’s overall sense of vulnerability, in its willingness to ‘go there’ — and that’s something that hasn’t always been as obvious on his previous efforts.

Those who have followed Mika’s career, and maybe even those who haven’t, are probably aware of his storybook songwriting. He has a tendency to create fantastical characters, and experiences that often read like caricatures. His lyrics are as bright as his melodies — never too intimate or revealing, maintaining a healthy distance between artist and consumer. Whether that was an unconscious decision on Mika’s part or a blatant act of self-preservation doesn’t really matter. The songs on No Place In Heaven are more self-referential than we’re used to from the singer — and they’re all the better for it.

While Mika has always seemed to be a crusader for self-love and self-acceptance, he challenges those notions here. On the album’s title track, he grapples with religion and all its shortcomings.

“There’s no place in Heaven for someone like me,” he sings.

In “All She Wants,” he paints a picture of a mother whose ideal son doesn’t match up with the reality: “All that she wants is another son.” And while there’s plenty of opportunity for reveling in self-loathing here, Mika never quite throws himself a pity party.

Sonically, the songs remain largely upbeat, with soaring melodies and blissful arpeggios. There’s a defiance that weaves itself throughout the album, a general lack of begging and apologizing that most of the tracks end on, now matter how they begin. Even on a track like “Good Wife,” where the narrator is secretly in love with a friend whose wife just left him, there’s no telling whether this is anecdotal or not — not everything is autobiographical, after all — but, again, it doesn’t matter. It’s relatable in its way, the one-sided love affair that fails to dim in its passion, but will never truly come to a satisfying fruition. With a chorus full of sharp falsetto reminiscent of Passion Pit’s “Sleepyhead,” the song is almost painfully positive in sound, as though to make the point that no matter how much it hurts to be just out of arm’s reach of the person you love, somehow, it is enough.

“Staring at the Sun” is where No Place In Heaven falls short. “Here I stand, staring at the sun / Distant land, staring at the sun / You’re not there but we share the same one,” Mika croons. The track falls into a lazy cliche we wouldn’t expect from someone who asked so frankly on just a few tracks earlier: “Where have all the gay guys gone?”

“Good Guys,” on the other hand, is as much a commentary on contemporary cultural figures as it is a nostalgic ode to Mika’s past heroes: “Thank you Rufus, thank you Auden and James Dean / Thank you Emerson and Bowie for my dreams / Wilfred Owen, Kinsey, Whitman and Rimbaud / Thank you Warhol, thank you patience, thank you Porter and Cocteau.” Lazy it is not, an adjective rarely ascribed to an artist as creative as Mika. (Thankfully, we won’t need to use it again.)

Mika’s musical knowledge is displayed in full force on No Place In Heaven, with plenty of ’60s and ’80s pop referenced throughout, but he never betrays the signature sound — a melding of the operatic, the theatrical and the decidedly sweet — except, perhaps, on “Promiseland,” which may be his most rock-heavy song yet. With lead guitars vaguely reminiscent of Led Zeppelin’s “Trampled Under Foot” (if it were to suffer a heavy pop makeover) it’s a solid song that doesn’t quite fit the tone of the album, and was smartly relegated to bonus track status.

No one has ever, or will ever, accuse Mika of being morose. And even the most somber songs he’s written have a tinge of positivity to them. The ballad “Last Party” offers an apocalyptic vision of a celebration timed with the very end of the world — but if that’s the case, they might as well have a kick-ass time saying goodbye.

“There’s this whole world that goes with my songs,” Mika once said in an interview with the Guardian. And while the picture he’s painted on No Place In Heaven may be a bit more subtle than we’re used to, this world is still very much his own.

PopCrush Rating: 4 out of 5

Edited June 17, 2015 by BiaIchihara

[Marilyn Mastin]

A very thoughtful review. I approve of it.

[Kumazzz]

METRO US

 

Another interview on US Metro - thanks to Mika's FB

 

page (Page 1).jpg

 

METRO US Philadelphia

 

Downloaded from Issuu.com http://issuu.com/metro_us/docs/20150615_us_philadelphia/1

Edited June 19, 2015 by Kumazzz

[mellody]

Another review: http://www.popmatters.com/review/194463-mika-no-place-in-heaven/

 

Mika No Place in Heaven

by Brice Ezell

19 June 2015

 

No Place in Heaven is Mika's most assured and confident set of tunes since his debut, Life in Cartoon Motion.

 

 

“I’ve gone identity mad!” Mika sings on his breakthrough single “Grace Kelly”, with falsetto in full blast. In that tune, which features on his 2007 debut disc Life in Cartoon Motion, the British chanteur depicts himself as someone constantly putting on the dressing of other great pop figures, with the titular Kelly and Freddie Mercury being the two most name-dropped. On his fourth solo outing, No Place in Heaven, released almost a decade after Life in Cartoon Motion, Mika announces he’s going to “Rio” to “find an alter ego”, suggesting, “Maybe I’ll be myself when I’m somebody else.” Is this vibrant musical personality really “identity mad” all these years later?
 

If No Place in Heaven is any indication, “identity mad” is far from the truth. Following the sickly sweet technicolor glow of Mika’s sophomore LP, The Boy Who Knew Too Much, and the promising but uneven misfire that is 2012’s The Origin of Love, No Place in Heaven is a work of significant maturation, a refining of a sound whose brilliance has only ever shone in patches throughout his still young discography. Even the solid Life in Cartoon Motion faltered in places due to its sugar-rush sonic, the strength of tracks like “Grace Kelly” and “Stuck in the Middle” notwithstanding. Although it’s not perfect, No Place in Heaven is easily the most consistent of Mika’s releases thus far.
 

This is the case for many reasons, notably because of Mika’s abandoning of flashy but ultimately foolhardy add-ons. The Origin of Love could well have been been his bounce-back from the sophomore slump that is The Boy Who Knew Too Much, but on too many songs he shoehorns in dance and electronic elements that detract from rather than enhancing the otherwise sharp pop fundamentals that Mika knows so well. Whether it’s the vocoder on “Make You Happy” or the regrettable EDM chorus of “Emily”, The Origin of Love is a good pop record marred by some awkward stylistic tics. Hearing excellent numbers like “Step With Me” and “Underwater”, one can’t help but wonder what Mika would sound like if he shed such gimmickry.
 

No Place in Heaven provides the answer. Right from the outset, with the fantastic single “Talk About You”, it’s clear that Mika is focusing on the groundwork of his songwriting: hooks, choruses, and melodies. Things like the phrasing on the pre-chorus lyric to “All She Wants” (“All that she wants are the stars and the moon”) and the ascending/descending vocal line on the infectious “Oh Girl You’re the Devil” show Mika’s immense pop aptitude, which has been evident on all his LPs but most pronouncedly here. The same goes for the musical theatre grandiosity that has long been one of Mika’s unique calling cards—that he has been called the bastard child of Freddie Mercury is all too apt—which is better than ever. Whether introspective (the title cut) or sorrowful (“Ordinary Man”), the Broadway vibes on No Place Like Heaven are palpable. Mika here continues in the aesthetic that has been unfolding over the course of his previous albums: his life as a musical.
 

Following that theme, it can be said that No Place in Heaven is the climactic moment of the musical’s book—that is, for now, at least. On the title track, “Oh Girl You’re the Devil”, and the bonus track “Promiseland”, Mika delves back into his Catholic upbringing, which became complicated when he discovered that his sexuality was anathema in his church environment. (After evading questions about his sexuality in interviews for years, as was his right, he came out publicly in 2012 as gay.) “I was a freak since seven years old / When cast away I felt the cold / Coming over me”, he laments on “No Place in Heaven”, ultimately worried that “there’s no place in heaven for someone like me.” While Mika told Neon Tommy at the time of The Origin of Love that he still identifies as Catholic, his angst over his religious background is understandable given that church’s intransigence on the issue persists to the present day. And unlike, for instance, The Boy Who Knew Too Much‘s “Toy Boy”, which coats a problematic case of child abuse in unbearably saccharine and whimsical music, here the gravitas of the songwriting is on par with the lyrical content. Those who aren’t keen on musical theatre’s grand gestures will likely find No Place in Heaven‘s swooning emotional highs and lows overwhelming, but, then again, those people probably don’t have Mika in their music collection to begin with.
 

For all of its successes, No Place in Heaven also does show that Mika still has plenty of wrinkles to iron out in his music, most noticeably in the lyrical department. “Hurts” puts a banal spin on the “sticks and stones” adage: “Nothing’s only words / That’s how hearts get hurt”. While the backing music on the track suggests a modern pop aria, the lyrics make it feel like an overinflated musical number for an after-school special. “Last Party”, although bolstered by some dramatic, sweeping strings, can’t escape from its clichéd chorus, a lyrical manifestation of EDM’s sonic: “If it’s the end of the world let’s party / Like it’s the end of the world / Let’s party.” Such an overt expression of what is already evident in Mika’s artistic persona can’t help but be cloying.

 

Still, these missteps, however noticeable, don’t detract from the achievement that Mika has attained in No Place in Heaven. His artistic presence has been easily identifiable since Life in Cartoon Motion, but at the same time he wasn’t so wrong to be worried about going “identity mad” on “Grace Kelly”. The Boy Who Knew Too Much overindulges in the sugary pop that Mika introduced with his debut, and The Origin of Love haphazardly attempts to over-correct for the full-blast color spectrum of his first two LPs. By contrast, No Place in Heaven is assured and mature, fully embodying Mika’s identity while trimming off the zaniness (Life in Cartoon Motion‘s “Lollipop”) and the ill-advised side ventures (the dance-y electronics on The Origin of Love). This artistic growth hasn’t come at the expense of playfulness; with tracks the unabashedly Broadway “Oh Girl You’re the Devil” and the vacation ode “Rio”, it’s impossible to not hear the echoes of the same chap who belted out “Grace Kelly” to the world in 2007. But it’s the touching self-reflection on songs like “No Place in Heaven” that balance out the syrupy moments that are laced throughout.

 

On “Good Guys”, Mika pays tribute to those that have influenced him as an artist: Cole Porter, Jean Cocteau, and “Bowie from my dreams” are all name-dropped, among many others. This tipping of the cap, however, doesn’t detract from Mika’s own artistic vision, just as the mention of “Grace Kelly” didn’t make his widescreen “Freddie Mercury for the 21st Century” aesthetic any less inviting back when it was first unveiled in 2007. Nearly a decade has gone by since Life in Cartoon Motion, and in addition to a bevy of unbelievably catchy pop tunes, Mika can now add No Place Like Heaven to his list of successes. This record is many things, but “identity mad” is not one of them; Mika hasn’t ever sounded more like himself than he does here.

[Sarina]

Thank you so much!

[Kumazzz]

Daily Xtra

http://goo.gl/P824rX

Mika channels Freddie Mercury on new album Brit pop star about his love for Montreal and finally being able to talk about being gay

by Richard Burnett on Thu, Jun 18, 2015 5:06 pm.

 

INTERVIEW

 

 

The tabloids have been obsessing over Mika’s sexual orientation ever since the British-Lebanese pop star exploded on the charts in 2007 with his debut album, Life in Cartoon Motion.

To the surprise of no one, Mika came out as gay in 2012.

But just three years earlier, when I first interviewed Mika, his handlers warned me to avoid personal questions and stick to the music.

So instead, Mika and I had talked about another closeted pop star, the late Freddie Mercury.

It was like we were talking in code.

Imitating Mercury from the famous backstage British TV interview on the Queen — We Will Rock You: Live in Montreal 1981 DVD, Mika turned to me, legs crossed and, pretending to hold a cigarette, did his finest imitation of Freddie Mercury.

“Yes, dahling,” Mika said à la Mercury. “Hello, dear!”

Following three sold-out concerts with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra (OSM) earlier this year, I sat down with Mika to talk about his new album and his obsession with Freddie Mercury.

 

Daily Xtra: The emotional centerpiece of your new album No Place in Heaven is the beautiful ballad “Last Party,” an ode to Freddie Mercury.

The last time I saw you, you imitated Freddie backstage on the Live in Montreal DVD . . .

 

Mika: Yes! I remember — that interview is something straight out of Absolutely Fabulous (laughs).

The song “Last Party” started with this idea that I had, when Freddie Mercury found out that he had AIDS, he closed himself up in a nightclub and had a crazy party for three days, with drugs and everything.

It was the worst possible thing to do after discovering that kind of news, but that’s what he did.

That’s why that song is called “Last Party,” and it’s one of the saddest songs I’ve ever heard.

 

You performed three sold-out nights at the Maison Symphonique de Montréal, performing newly-orchestrated interpretations of your songs with the OSM.

How much work was it and will you release a live album?

 

We prepared for the Montreal concerts for six months.

It was a long process: [orchestrator and conductor] Simon [Leclerc] got it, he listened to every single granule of everything I had ever done.

Then on opening night I wasn’t nervous. I felt elation.

There was new blood pumping through my veins because I was doing something that was now beyond my control.

It’s like being a kid again. It’s like being on a trapeze or a high-wire with no safety net beneath you. It’s this incredible thing.

You see it in classical music too: 110 people onstage together in exactly the same headspace.

We recorded every single note on 100 channels and are planning to release an album of the shows.

 

You’re back in Montreal this summer for two more concerts at the jazz festival.

Montrealers love you.

Why do you love Montreal?

 

I enjoy Montreal because it’s an easy place to be creative, it has all the good sides of North American culture as well as French and European culture, yet it is not in the shadow of the United States, which I think is great. It is a place that has fought to preserve its cultural identity and by doing so procures culture.

The first response you get when you come up with a crazy idea in Montreal is not “no” but “maybe.” And that’s pretty great.

That’s why crazy things come out of this town.

 

How difficult was it to negotiate the showbiz closet before you publicly came out as gay in 2012?

 

 

Things take time.

From the viewpoint of the press and the veil of marketing — external things — you can often forget that things take time.

There is a personal side to every story.

How do you deal with something publicly when you don’t deal with it personally?

That should be the last thing you do, if you’re not dealing with it. Otherwise you #### yourself up and you end up in a really dark place.

One thing I will say and said even back then — and nothing has changed in this respect — is that the concept of coming out is a very dangerous one because it is not the most in-depth thing.

It’s like a firecracker that goes off.

Then what happens afterwards?

Sexuality and identity have been the ingredients of my music and lyrics since the beginning. It was always there.

It’s just that my figuring out was done in a different way and under a lot of pressure, a lot of negative pressure, which was the worst possible thing that could be done.

What was the point?

 

LGBT ( lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender ) activists wanted you to be a posterboy.

 

But they already had me. Just read my lyrics.

I’m still very private about my private life. Developing a sense of candidness takes time.

 

Are you happier today than you were five years ago?

 

I was happy then too. Then, as now, I have the privilege of doing what I love.

I’m really happy that I have the freedom to deal with the concept of sexuality, labels and breaking those preconceptions and how you are supposed to deal with it.

I gave myself that freedom.

 

 

 

 

 

The writer's works about Mika in MFC

2009 http://www.mikafanclub.com/topic/23544-mercury-rising-from-hourca/?hl=%2Brichard+%2Bburnett

2014 http://www.mikafanclub.com/topic/30450-mika-in-us-canadian-press/?p=4001866

2015 http://www.mikafanclub.com/topic/31887-mika-in-us-press-2015/?p=4001867

[Marilyn Mastin]

Another review: http://www.popmatters.com/review/194463-mika-no-place-in-heaven/

A brilliant review. I have to agree with the writer, and other reviewers have also mentioned this. Mika could do with some help, lyric-wise. He writes the most amazing tunes, but the lyrics do sometimes let him down. Although the lyrics are better on this record, they still could improve and he would get the best out of his music then. Even Andrew Lloyd Webber, genius that he is, always has someone else writing his lyrics.

I also agree that Mika should steer clear of electronic gadgets and gizmos. That's alright if the music, or the singer's voice, isn't up to scratch, but that's not the case with Mika.

He has steered clear of all that electronic stuff on this album, and it's all the better for it.

With his classical training, his music works better when it's just his music. With the instruments and the layering of everything, but no artificial stuff. His voice doesn't need any autotune. Leave that to the people who can't sing that well. Mika doesn't need it.

What people are saying, basically, is that Mika has matured with this record, but it's because he's no longer holding back. I think this is just the beginning for Mika and that he will go from strength to strength. But I'm savouring all the wonderful attention that NPIH is getting. It's wonderful. 

Edited June 19, 2015 by Marilyn Mastin

[mellody]

a very positive article - sounds like a press release tho. http://www.edgeboston.com/entertainment/music/news/179499/mika%27s_%27no_place_in_heaven%27_album_available_now

[charlie20]

A brilliant review. I have to agree with the writer, and other reviewers have also mentioned this. Mika could do with some help, lyric-wise. He writes the most amazing tunes, but the lyrics do sometimes let him down. Although the lyrics are better on this record, they still could improve and he would get the best out of his music then. Even Andrew Lloyd Webber, genius that he is, always has someone else writing his lyrics.

I also agree that Mika should steer clear of electronic gadgets and gizmos. That's alright if the music, or the singer's voice, isn't up to scratch, but that's not the case with Mika.

He has steered clear of all that electronic stuff on this album, and it's all the better for it.

With his classical training, his music works better when it's just his music. With the instruments and the layering of everything, but no artificial stuff. His voice doesn't need any autotune. Leave that to the people who can't sing that well. Mika doesn't need it.

What people are saying, basically, is that Mika has matured with this record, but it's because he's no longer holding back. I think this is just the beginning for Mika and that he will go from strength to strength. But I'm savouring all the wonderful attention that NPIH is getting. It's wonderful. 

 

Mika is not and never has been only a singer, he is a songwriter and he has said many times that he considers himself essentially a songwriter. His words/lyrics are him, what he feels at that moment and his way of expressing it, to express himself and it is what distinguishes him and his music.

Is he or are his lyrics perfect? No, of course, but I prefer innumerable/countless times his "imperfection" than the "comfortable" or "better", or whatever people call it (but from what perspective?) songs and lyrics of many other writers.

Obviously this is just my opinion.

Edited June 24, 2015 by charlie20

[cathouzouf]

 

 

Mika is not and never has been only a singer, he is a songwriter and he has said many times that he considers essentially a songwriter. His words/lyrics are him, what he feels at that moment and his way of expressing it, to express himself and it is what distinguishes him and his music.

Is he or are his lyrics perfect? No, of course, but I prefer innumerable/countless times his "imperfection" than the "comfortable" or "better", or whatever people call it (but from what perspective?) songs and lyrics of many other writers.

Obviously this is just my opinion.

Not just yours

[Manon14]

 

 

Mika is not and never has been only a singer, he is a songwriter and he has said many times that he considers essentially a songwriter. His words/lyrics are him, what he feels at that moment and his way of expressing it, to express himself and it is what distinguishes him and his music.

Is he or are his lyrics perfect? No, of course, but I prefer innumerable/countless times his "imperfection" than the "comfortable" or "better", or whatever people call it (but from what perspective?) songs and lyrics of many other writers.

Obviously this is just my opinion.

 

 

I agree, with something as subjective as music or even creative writing: what does 'better' mean anyway?

Music, as all art forms, simply is a matter of taste. I admire Mika as a singer who writes his own songs, more than I would have if he were just a singer who sang other people's songs. As long as he's not being lazy in the songwriting (like, repeating the verse and chorus constantly as in Big Girl - I'm not a fan of that song), he's always written what he feels is genuine, and that's the most important thing to me. I understand that some singer-songwriters write more poetic or eloquent, but I could listen to them as well when I want to. As for Mika, like any artist, as long as he writes from the heart, you can feel that it's genuine and that's what I search for in musicians that I listen to and look up to.

[kreacher]

Don't think this review has been posted anywhere yet, has it? I'm not sure if US press or not, but it's in English.

http://blogcritics.org/music-review-mika-no-place-in-heaven/

 

 

Music Review: Mika – ‘No Place in Heaven’

Posted by: Jon Sobel June 16, 2015

Mika‘s gift for melodic, catchy, socially perceptive glam-pop with literate lyrics and operatic sizzle is undimmed on his fourth studio album, No Place in Heaven. His sound has mellowed a bit but hasn’t changed in essence in the three years since 2012’s The Origin of Love reached number one on the charts – the charts in France, not in the British singer-songwriter’s home country, nor in the United States where he remains relatively unknown.
“Talk About You” leads off the new album with an echo of the old Dusty Springfield hit “I Only Want to Be With You,” which charted in 1964. Mika’s sound may be up-to-date, but his pop sensibility indeed extends through the whole past half-century. With its wall of harmonies and yearning for love, it sets a bright tone. But uncertainty – about love, family, and maybe above all, identity itself – are never far in Mika’s songs.
In “All She Wants” Mika uses a Ray Davies-like warble to paint a strangely complex portrait of the narrator’s family life. And “Last Party” with its dark echo of Prince’s “1999” may be the grimmest party song I’ve ever heard. In fact, when the “Last Party” video came out, becoming my first glimpse of the new album, I didn’t get it at first, as I didn’t associate the usually flamboyant Mika with such quiet, contemplative visuals.
But on paying closer attention to the lyrics, the video makes sense. “Got a feeling there’s bad news coming…Who knew the mercury could rise so fast? / Enjoy the party ’cause this is our last.” Sober stuff.

“Good Guys” is a literate gloss on (I think) pop culture, nostalgia, and sexual identity. And when the narrator of the title track revisits childhood and considers the ultimate future, he fears that “there’s no place in Heaven for someone like me.”
“Staring at the Sun” is a glittery-smooth dance-floor-ready track with dark undertones. “Hurt” floats a soft melodic ballad on a piano cloud reminiscent of Tori Amos’s breakthrough albums of the ’90s. “Nothing’s only words. That’s how hearts get hurt.”
It may be, these songs suggest, that the only way to escape hurt and exile is to change who you are. The escape fantasy “Rio,” more George Michael via Paul Simon than Duran Duran, pairs a cute rhyme about leaving a bad situation behind with what reads like a challenge to Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way”: “Maybe I’ll be myself when I’m somebody else.”
Of course, to be a pop star in an image-hungry world is almost always to be “somebody else,” as anyone who’s seen Gaga’s get-ups knows. Mika’s plain white shirt and intense, honest expression in the “Last Party” video look at first glance like they’re meant to suggest what the singer (or the narrator) is “really like.” But on reflection, it’s just another, different image, another self yet again. This time it’s the “Ordinary Man” of the song by that name, who worries that he may be “not as special as I think that I am,” but then realizes, no: “I was ordinary just to you.”
There’s nothing ordinary about this smart Euro-pop – which Mika proves is not a contradiction in terms. The album spears a bright note in a long melody threading through popular music history, a tune that winds among artists as diverse as Dusty Springfield, Abba, and Queen. There really aren’t any clunkers or filler here. Deep into No Place in Heaven we get the angular earworm “Promiseland” and the ode to fragility “Porcelain,” the latter sung in a appropriately flinty falsetto. However fragile Mika’s alter egos may be, his impeccably produced music is a sturdy, polished kind of art, with an emotional transparency more diamond-like than glassy.

Edited June 24, 2015 by kreacher

[Marilyn Mastin]

 

 

Mika is not and never has been only a singer, he is a songwriter and he has said many times that he considers himself essentially a songwriter. His words/lyrics are him, what he feels at that moment and his way of expressing it, to express himself and it is what distinguishes him and his music.

Is he or are his lyrics perfect? No, of course, but I prefer innumerable/countless times his "imperfection" than the "comfortable" or "better", or whatever people call it (but from what perspective?) songs and lyrics of many other writers.

Obviously this is just my opinion.

 

I am sorry about that. I hadn't heard the songs and I worried, from what people were saying, in the UK reviews, that the lyrics might not be equal to the tunes. Some earlier songs of his have lyrics that could have been better, but I have changed my mind after hearing all the new album songs. I'm very sorry I doubted the lyrics. The words on the album are the best He's ever done and I'm deeply sorry I let myself be influenced by anyone else.

Edited June 24, 2015 by Marilyn Mastin

[Kumazzz]

OUT magazine

 

MIKA posts it to the facebook

https://www.facebook.com/mikasounds/photos/a.10150417790488040.363530.6006248039/10153105109163040/?type=1&theater

 

"Mika talks to Out Magazine about his favourite places in Paris  "

 

Mika's Paris

 

Edited July 8, 2015 by Kumazzz

[charlie20]

Washington Blade

 

 

https://www.washingtonblade.com/2015/07/09/mikas-magic-touch/

 

July 9, 2015 at 3:52 pm EDT | by Joey DiGuglielmo

 

Mika’s magic touch

 

 

Mika’s new album is his most mature and autobiographical to date, yet it’s no less fun to listen to than his earlier work. (Photo by Peter Lindbergh)

 

 

It’s pretty staggering to note in retrospect when pop acts — or any artist — were on great runs.

Realizing, for example, that Fleetwood Mac released “Fleetwood Mac,” “Rumours,” “Tusk” and “Mirage” successively or that Joni Mitchell released “Blue,” “For the Roses,” “Court and Spark, “Hissing of Summer Lawns” and “Hejira” in a legendary ‘70s streak, simply boggles the mind. It’s harder to recognize when it’s happening, but glimpses of this kind of thing are discernible in contemporary pop. With the June release of his fourth album “No Place in Heaven,” pop wunderkind Mika is on that kind of a masterpiece-dropping fever cycle. It’s also his gayest album yet.

It would be tempting to think, based on album opener and first single “Talk About You,” that we’re in for a slighter, more throwaway affair than the last album (released in 2012) which opened with an epic bang on the title cut “Origin of Love.” But that would be a mistake as this opener, though catchy, turns out to be the most disposable thing here. A treasure trove of near Beatles-caliber pop magic awaits on the rest and makes for a very strong winning streak when considered alongside “Origin” and 2009’s “The Boy Who Knew Too Much.” Long-time co-producer Greg Wells (Adele, Katy Perry, Pink) returns for much of the proceedings.

What makes it so great? It’s a masterpiece of tone balance both lyrically and musically. Mika’s often earnest yet manages never to lose his sense of humor. The cuts are tight and stylistically varied with nary a dud in the batch.

Having grown more comfortable in his gay skin — he came out officially in 2012 though he’d suggested openness to male lovers a few years’ prior — and even, at just 31, matured as a songwriter, this album and “Origin” have a gravitas lacking on the first two. Refreshingly, his material has lost none of its fun along the way. Even on ponderous torchy songs like “Ordinary Man,” it’s never heavy handed.

Queer themes abound and provide the album’s strongest moments from the cheeky “All She Wants,” (about a mom who straight-washes her son to the point of wishing he were someone else entirely) to the tightly hooked shuffle “Rio” to the highly syncopated, tough-yet-slinky bonus cut “Promiseland” where he “lived my life as the good boy I was told I should be/prayed every night to a religion that was chosen for me.”

For a guy who sang euphorically of “teenage dreams in a teenage circus” (on “We Are Golden”), to find him grappling with larger questions of faith and marriage is startling at first, but works.

A trio of cuts stand above the rest: with a sly reference to the Paula Cole hit “Where Have all the Cowboys Gone,” Mika wonders “where have all the gay guys gone” on “Good Guys” while a backing outfit that sounds like the Polyphonic Spree sing lines like “we are all in the gutter” with the same joyousness you hear on “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing.” “Good Wife” finds him playing consoler to a straight guy he’s crushing on whose wife ran out. It’s both funny and poignant.

The finest moment is the tender prayer of the title track in which the singer, over a noodling piano figure, sings of “being cast away” by the church and begging God to “learn to love me anyway.” It’s a sophisticated lament to which many burned by religion will relate. The melodies are memorable and first rate throughout — they’re ear worms first, meditations on life and love second.

It only takes one bad gay singer/songwriter pop album to make you realize how easily these kinds of outings can backfire and how truly rare the great ones are. If you’ve never heard of, say, Matt Zarley for one, thank your lucky stars (queer unctuousness run amok). There are legions of others who are decent: the Tom Gosses and Jason & deMarcos of the world. Rufus Wainwright is clearly talented but about as much fun as a Good Friday service. Mika is in a league of his own.

[CarolinaAsh]

Washington Blade

 

logo3 c.png

 

https://www.washingtonblade.com/2015/07/09/mikas-magic-touch/

 

July 9, 2015 at 3:52 pm EDT | by Joey DiGuglielmo

 

Mika’s magic touch

 

 

Mika’s new album is his most mature and autobiographical to date, yet it’s no less fun to listen to than his earlier work. (Photo by Peter Lindbergh)

 

It’s pretty staggering to note in retrospect when pop acts — or any artist — were on great runs.

Realizing, for example, that Fleetwood Mac released “Fleetwood Mac,” “Rumours,” “Tusk” and “Mirage” successively or that Joni Mitchell released “Blue,” “For the Roses,” “Court and Spark, “Hissing of Summer Lawns” and “Hejira” in a legendary ‘70s streak, simply boggles the mind. It’s harder to recognize when it’s happening, but glimpses of this kind of thing are discernible in contemporary pop. With the June release of his fourth album “No Place in Heaven,” pop wunderkind Mika is on that kind of a masterpiece-dropping fever cycle. It’s also his gayest album yet.

It would be tempting to think, based on album opener and first single “Talk About You,” that we’re in for a slighter, more throwaway affair than the last album (released in 2012) which opened with an epic bang on the title cut “Origin of Love.” But that would be a mistake as this opener, though catchy, turns out to be the most disposable thing here. A treasure trove of near Beatles-caliber pop magic awaits on the rest and makes for a very strong winning streak when considered alongside “Origin” and 2009’s “The Boy Who Knew Too Much.” Long-time co-producer Greg Wells (Adele, Katy Perry, Pink) returns for much of the proceedings.

What makes it so great? It’s a masterpiece of tone balance both lyrically and musically. Mika’s often earnest yet manages never to lose his sense of humor. The cuts are tight and stylistically varied with nary a dud in the batch.

Having grown more comfortable in his gay skin — he came out officially in 2012 though he’d suggested openness to male lovers a few years’ prior — and even, at just 31, matured as a songwriter, this album and “Origin” have a gravitas lacking on the first two. Refreshingly, his material has lost none of its fun along the way. Even on ponderous torchy songs like “Ordinary Man,” it’s never heavy handed.

Queer themes abound and provide the album’s strongest moments from the cheeky “All She Wants,” (about a mom who straight-washes her son to the point of wishing he were someone else entirely) to the tightly hooked shuffle “Rio” to the highly syncopated, tough-yet-slinky bonus cut “Promiseland” where he “lived my life as the good boy I was told I should be/prayed every night to a religion that was chosen for me.”

For a guy who sang euphorically of “teenage dreams in a teenage circus” (on “We Are Golden”), to find him grappling with larger questions of faith and marriage is startling at first, but works.

A trio of cuts stand above the rest: with a sly reference to the Paula Cole hit “Where Have all the Cowboys Gone,” Mika wonders “where have all the gay guys gone” on “Good Guys” while a backing outfit that sounds like the Polyphonic Spree sing lines like “we are all in the gutter” with the same joyousness you hear on “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing.” “Good Wife” finds him playing consoler to a straight guy he’s crushing on whose wife ran out. It’s both funny and poignant.

The finest moment is the tender prayer of the title track in which the singer, over a noodling piano figure, sings of “being cast away” by the church and begging God to “learn to love me anyway.” It’s a sophisticated lament to which many burned by religion will relate. The melodies are memorable and first rate throughout — they’re ear worms first, meditations on life and love second.

It only takes one bad gay singer/songwriter pop album to make you realize how easily these kinds of outings can backfire and how truly rare the great ones are. If you’ve never heard of, say, Matt Zarley for one, thank your lucky stars (queer unctuousness run amok). There are legions of others who are decent: the Tom Gosses and Jason & deMarcos of the world. Rufus Wainwright is clearly talented but about as much fun as a Good Friday service. Mika is in a league of his own.

Yes. Yes amazing article. And the last sentence? A thousand yeses.

[Marilyn Mastin]

Washington Blade

 

logo3 c.png

 

https://www.washingtonblade.com/2015/07/09/mikas-magic-touch/

 

July 9, 2015 at 3:52 pm EDT | by Joey DiGuglielmo

 

Mika’s magic touch

 

 

Mika’s new album is his most mature and autobiographical to date, yet it’s no less fun to listen to than his earlier work. (Photo by Peter Lindbergh)

 

 

It’s pretty staggering to note in retrospect when pop acts — or any artist — were on great runs.

Realizing, for example, that Fleetwood Mac released “Fleetwood Mac,” “Rumours,” “Tusk” and “Mirage” successively or that Joni Mitchell released “Blue,” “For the Roses,” “Court and Spark, “Hissing of Summer Lawns” and “Hejira” in a legendary ‘70s streak, simply boggles the mind. It’s harder to recognize when it’s happening, but glimpses of this kind of thing are discernible in contemporary pop. With the June release of his fourth album “No Place in Heaven,” pop wunderkind Mika is on that kind of a masterpiece-dropping fever cycle. It’s also his gayest album yet.

It would be tempting to think, based on album opener and first single “Talk About You,” that we’re in for a slighter, more throwaway affair than the last album (released in 2012) which opened with an epic bang on the title cut “Origin of Love.” But that would be a mistake as this opener, though catchy, turns out to be the most disposable thing here. A treasure trove of near Beatles-caliber pop magic awaits on the rest and makes for a very strong winning streak when considered alongside “Origin” and 2009’s “The Boy Who Knew Too Much.” Long-time co-producer Greg Wells (Adele, Katy Perry, Pink) returns for much of the proceedings.

What makes it so great? It’s a masterpiece of tone balance both lyrically and musically. Mika’s often earnest yet manages never to lose his sense of humor. The cuts are tight and stylistically varied with nary a dud in the batch.

Having grown more comfortable in his gay skin — he came out officially in 2012 though he’d suggested openness to male lovers a few years’ prior — and even, at just 31, matured as a songwriter, this album and “Origin” have a gravitas lacking on the first two. Refreshingly, his material has lost none of its fun along the way. Even on ponderous torchy songs like “Ordinary Man,” it’s never heavy handed.

Queer themes abound and provide the album’s strongest moments from the cheeky “All She Wants,” (about a mom who straight-washes her son to the point of wishing he were someone else entirely) to the tightly hooked shuffle “Rio” to the highly syncopated, tough-yet-slinky bonus cut “Promiseland” where he “lived my life as the good boy I was told I should be/prayed every night to a religion that was chosen for me.”

For a guy who sang euphorically of “teenage dreams in a teenage circus” (on “We Are Golden”), to find him grappling with larger questions of faith and marriage is startling at first, but works.

A trio of cuts stand above the rest: with a sly reference to the Paula Cole hit “Where Have all the Cowboys Gone,” Mika wonders “where have all the gay guys gone” on “Good Guys” while a backing outfit that sounds like the Polyphonic Spree sing lines like “we are all in the gutter” with the same joyousness you hear on “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing.” “Good Wife” finds him playing consoler to a straight guy he’s crushing on whose wife ran out. It’s both funny and poignant.

The finest moment is the tender prayer of the title track in which the singer, over a noodling piano figure, sings of “being cast away” by the church and begging God to “learn to love me anyway.” It’s a sophisticated lament to which many burned by religion will relate. The melodies are memorable and first rate throughout — they’re ear worms first, meditations on life and love second.

It only takes one bad gay singer/songwriter pop album to make you realize how easily these kinds of outings can backfire and how truly rare the great ones are. If you’ve never heard of, say, Matt Zarley for one, thank your lucky stars (queer unctuousness run amok). There are legions of others who are decent: the Tom Gosses and Jason & deMarcos of the world. Rufus Wainwright is clearly talented but about as much fun as a Good Friday service. Mika is in a league of his own.

There should be a, "I Like It So Much I want To Snog the Writer", button. But since there isn't one, I've made do with the "Like".button.

Oh my God! This is just perfect! No other word for it!

It says what we've always known. It's true that we don't always see something great in music, while it's happening. In the 60s, which I remember, we never knew The Beatles would become icons of music, while they were doing their stuff in the 60s. The same with ABBA and Queen. They were great, but we never thought of them as icons until years later.

I've always thought that Mika should become an icon, but unlike the other artists I've mentioned, I saw his greatness straight away, and I know, so did everyone on this site, and others as well.

It's time he was starting to be considered an icon in pop, and reviews like this will, hopefully help that process. I also, can't understand why gay people are taking so long to realise he's their champion. One who also appeals to straight people, so the best kind for them to have.

This review has made my week, not just my day!

Edited July 11, 2015 by Marilyn Mastin

[Littlelady]

:thumb_yello: :thumb_yello:

[mamiam]

There should be a, "I Like It So Much I want To Snog the Writer", button. But since there isn't one, I've made do with the "Like".button.

Oh my God! This is just perfect! No other word for it!

It says what we've always known. It's true that we don't always see something great in music, while it's happening. In the 60s, which I remember, we never knew The Beatles would become icons of music, while they were doing their stuff in the 60s. The same with ABBA and Queen. They were great, but we never thought of them as icons until years later.

I've always thought that Mika should become an icon, but unlike the other artists I've mentioned, I saw his greatness straight away, and I know, so did everyone on this site, and others as well.

It's time he was starting to be considered an icon in pop, and reviews like this will, hopefully help that process. I also, can't understand why gay people are taking so long to realise he's their champion. One who also appeals to straight people, so the best kind for them to have.

This review has made my week, not just my day!

 

 This review filled my eyes with tears, by reading it - of pure joy !!  Finally someone who REALLY understands what a treasure of an alb. NPIH is!!   It made my day, my week - and probably also my month!!   Let's hope it will be read by thousands, and make LOTS of people curious,  about both this special alb. about MIKA  himself, and his earlier work...  I feel he's growing rapidly in the US now, and I'm on cloud nine about it - because I really want as many as possible to get to know his wonderful music...   

 

Love,love

me 

[Marilyn Mastin]

 This review filled my eyes with tears, by reading it - of pure joy !!  Finally someone who REALLY understands what a treasure of an alb. NPIH is!!   It made my day, my week - and probably also my month!!   Let's hope it will be read by thousands, and make LOTS of people curious,  about both this special alb. about MIKA  himself, and his earlier work...  I feel he's growing rapidly in the US now, and I'm on cloud nine about it - because I really want as many as possible to get to know his wonderful music...   

 

Love,love

me 

He's had such great write-ups in the US press. This one takes the gold medal, but there have been such great moments recently. Like you, I really hope that Mika is starting to light up the USA. If he does, the light will stretch across the pond to these poor little islands that make up the UK, and wake them up at last.

It's so wonderful to read such good, and intelligent reviews, of Mika's magnum opus, NPIH, from the US press.

[silver]

He's had such great write-ups in the US press. This one takes the gold medal, but there have been such great moments recently. Like you, I really hope that Mika is starting to light up the USA. If he does, the light will stretch across the pond to these poor little islands that make up the UK, and wake them up at last.

It's so wonderful to read such good, and intelligent reviews, of Mika's magnum opus, NPIH, from the US press.

 

He has had great reviews, yes, but bear in mind these are not from the mainstream press.

[charlie20]

Interview on Rage Monthly Magazine

 

http://content.yudu.com/Library/A3rk30/RageMonthlyMagazineS/resources/index.htm

 

 

 

To better see the interview here the images larger:

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 16, 2015 by charlie20

[Marilyn Mastin]

I love what the guys says in the first part of the article.

The difference with someone like this guy above, and that Chris person who reviewed Mika's album the other night on Radio 2 in the UK, is that this guy sees the whole album and what Mika has achieved with writing it.

The guy on Radio 2 was very complimentary of Mika as a musician, and said that he should write more orchestra based music. But on this album, a lot of the tracks would be good as classical arrangements, as they are, at their core, classically based. Ordinary Man being very much a case in point, and if you listen to NPIH and concentrate on the music, it has a kind of classic flamenco based tune. But the man on radio 2, basically dismissed this album as just like his first one, and that made me very disappointed.

But all that aside. Why didn't the guy on Radio 2, and most others in the UK, have anything to say about how brave Mika is with this album. "Where have all the gay guys gone?" That can not be misinterpreted. He's always been out there with his music, but this bold line in GG tells people once and for all. Good Wife also goes there (even though it could be referring to a woman in love with her male best friend, because of GG, the listener knows what Mika means in the song, when he sings it)

These days there is a lot more tolerance for gay people, but also a lot of people still hate them. This album will support gay people, and also tell straight people that gay people are actually normal. They fall in-love and have relationships like anyone else. Why couldn't that guy on Radio 2 in the UK, even mention how brave Mika is with this album, when there is still a lot of prejudice around?

Thank goodness for these great reviews from USA. I know they are not mainstream press, but there are enough of them to make a difference and help gay people, and their straight family and friends, sit up and take notice of Mika. Everyone can enjoy his wonderful songs. His work is so unifying, why can't the UK see that as well? 

Edited July 16, 2015 by Marilyn Mastin

[Kezza]

Great interview. Thanks for that!

 

It is indeed a wonderful feeling when you are free to be who you are, with the opportunity to form your life as you see fit. Mine's always under construction, but I get exactly what he is saying. I love the new openness, the new attitude. Go, Mika!

[mamiam]

Thank you so much Charlie20, for another great interview - and big thanks to Marilyn for your wise comment! Yes, you really can ask - why can't the UK see MIKA like he really is !? Anyway, I'm very happy for all the good US stuff these days, and I think we just have to enjoy it as much as possible ...

 

Love,love

me