My Name Is Michael Holbrook - Mika's new album 2019

[mellody]

17 minutes ago, ellie said:

 

Will anyone remember Mika for his music though?

 

For Grace Kelly and Relax, for sure - it still gets played on the radio after 12 years (even in Germany, where hardly anyone knows Mika is still making music).

For his new album he absolutely should be remembered, in my opinion. But the music industry has completely changed since the times when big stars like The Beatles, Queen or Madonna were on the height of their career. Like everything in life, it has become much faster - songs get streamed today, the next song is just a click away. Back in the 70s and 80s, you'd buy a 7" Single and celebrate listening to it over and over again. A song was something special, whereas today it's "fast food", everyone can produce professional sounding music at home with equipment for a few hundred €. And I get so sick of the stuff that's played on the radio. Occasionally there's one song which I love (the last one was Ed Sheeran's "Shape of you"), but that happens about once in 2 or 3 years. I'd love to hear Mika's new songs on the radio in the A-lists, but I'm pretty sure that won't happen, because it's not the typical radio sound of today. He's pop, but he's not mainstream.

[MatanBenYosef224]

17 minutes ago, mellody said:

 

For Grace Kelly and Relax, for sure - it still gets played on the radio after 12 years (even in Germany, where hardly anyone knows Mika is still making music).

For his new album he absolutely should be remembered, in my opinion. But the music industry has completely changed since the times when big stars like The Beatles, Queen or Madonna were on the height of their career. Like everything in life, it has become much faster - songs get streamed today, the next song is just a click away. Back in the 70s and 80s, you'd buy a 7" Single and celebrate listening to it over and over again. A song was something special, whereas today it's "fast food", everyone can produce professional sounding music at home with equipment for a few hundred €. And I get so sick of the stuff that's played on the radio. Occasionally there's one song which I love (the last one was Ed Sheeran's "Shape of you"), but that happens about once in 2 or 3 years. I'd love to hear Mika's new songs on the radio in the A-lists, but I'm pretty sure that won't happen, because it's not the typical radio sound of today. He's pop, but he's not mainstream.

 

A Few years ago I Went with my mom to some dressing shop and they had radio, and suddenly 'Underwater' started.  I Was So hyped to hear it on the radio!!! My mother had no idea why I'm so hyped ("It's just a song in the radio" she said something like this" and the one who worked there said something like "you can record it with your phone" (?) But I Said I Already has the song on my phone, not to mention it was my ringtone back then... 

What I'm saying - It's rare to hear MIKA on radios unless it's Grace kelly, love today, relax, And I Wish to hear something from MNIMH on the radios...

 

[ellie]

51 minutes ago, mellody said:

 

He wanted to go back to his roots, the way he felt when he wrote LICM. And - I think I've said it before on another thread - when I first heard LICM, almost every song sounded familiar, as if I'd heard it before. Queen, Abba, Beatles, Cutting Crew (though I only noticed that similarity because he explicitly mentioned it in the credits),... but still it was new and fresh, Mika's own creation, although the sound strongly reminded of other songs. And with MNIMH it's the same.

Personally, I don't think of other songs in particular when listening to Mika's new songs - the only exception being the Bridge in San Remo, which reminds me too strongly of TLC's Waterfalls. But of the others, no. Sure, IWTHLN sounds like it could be by The Beatles, but I can't pin it down to one particular Beatles song. Billy Brown also sounded like a Beatles song to me, I remember spending weeks on trying to find out which one it was, and at some point I just gave up.

 

Cream/Ice cream? He even got similar dancers as Prince.

 

Im not talking about just a familar sound though, I hear similarities in structures and themes and even in vocal styling that almost verge into parody ( I really cant unhear Britney and Ricky Martin on Dear Jealousy and Platform Ballerinas  ). I wish at least he wouldve just stuck only to an era of music like on LICM but here hes trying his hand at all kind of pop that im just left wondering what exactly is his point as an artist? What does he has to say exactly - that he can write a pop song? I mean, I knew it give me something more lol.

 

Anyway like I said in a different comment maybe the 'issue' for me is the lack of Greg Wells

 

[silver]

On 10/5/2019 at 4:46 PM, giraffeandy said:

 

On Genius there's shackles:

 

'Cause I can’t be your slave to the rhythm
I've got shackles on my feet

 

https://genius.com/Mika-cry-lyrics

 

I think it makes sense and I also hear it there... 

(I know Genius isn't official but I usually read the lyrics there and they're mostly right.)

 

Definitely shackles

[krysady]

43 minutes ago, mellody said:

Sure, IWTHLN sounds like it could be by The Beatles

Yes,I get strong vibes of Beatles mixed with a bit of Elton from that song. But the most obvious for me it is the resemblance and influence of Bohemian Rhapsody in Tiny Love, the structure and even some short parts are so similar, it's hard to not notice.

 

I think that at this point, my least favorite song must be Blue, and not because of the song itself, but because his voice sounds kinda weird in it to my ears 

Oh, and I have one that I ( hate ) will skip  every time, I don't think it matches with the entire album and even more after Tiny Love   In my personal playlist I will remove it with The Sound Of An Orchestra.

Tomorrow it's still my absolute favorite from this album and one of the best songs from all his albums, this song it's flawless. His voice sounds astounding over the entire record, there's no doubts. But this song it was made like to deliberately highlight every single inflection of his low and high tone of his soft voice, and the rhythm it's simply perfect 

 

[Mikasister]

 

[Mikasister]

http://www.itunescharts.net/esp/charts/songs/2019/10/06

 

iTunes Spanish charts for songs

#41Tomorrow

#85 Ready To Call This Love

[crazyaboutmika]

3 hours ago, ellie said:

 

Will anyone remember Mika for his music though?

[Anna Ko Kolkowska]

11 hours ago, ellie said:

 

Lol I couldnt resist making a joke

 

I mean I like it, but I feel its kinda average and nothing special.

Ha ha ha! 😁 Music is about feelings and emotions. So we are definitely in different zones 😁 

[krysady]

20 hours ago, We-Are-Golden said:

Probably because the music is just so totally different that what I'm used to from him and it really depends on the mood I'm in.

After more plays during yesterday, I must say that I like the album more and more. You are right, we just need more time to get used to this new different sound, but it's normal. It took 2 years to Mika to create and adapt to this new style, now we need a little time too   And it's not such a tragedy if some of us will skip some tracks, I guess this is happening for any other album, and for any other artist in the world, it would be weird if everybody would like everything the same way  

[Mikasister]

 

[Mousetrap]

So, there's been some progress  I begin to like more songs. I like Blue, it sounds like the most Mikaish song on the album and reminds me of Un Soleil Mal Lune at some point. And Cry, yes exactly! It's a really nice song, though the lyrics are quite simple and it sounds like George Michael (music) meets Justin Timberlake (vocals), I think I can cope with it  Actually there're many mistakes with it's lyrics in an album booklet.

[Mikasister]

After some listening here it is my ranking from more to less by now

 

1.Tiny Love Reprise

2.Tiny Love

3.Dear Jealousy

4.I Went To Hell Last Night

5.Tomorrow

6.Sanremo

7.Paloma

8.Platform Ballerinas

9.Cry

10.Ice Cream

11.Ready To call This Love

12.Stay High

13.Blue

 

[Starlight]

16 hours ago, crazyaboutmika said:

[Mikasister]

12 Years After ‘Grace Kelly,’ Mika Turns Personal Trauma Into Joyous Pop Once More

 

 

The singer says his new album, “My Name Is Michael Holbrook,” was “written as medicine,” but he hasn’t lost his sense of campy queer fun either.

 

 

After more than a decade as a falsetto-voiced purveyor of pop music, Mika is hitting the reset button.

On “Grace Kelly,” off his 2007 debut album, “Life in Cartoon Motion,” the Lebanese-born British singer announced he’d gone “identity mad” as he crooned about adopting different identities, namely the 1950s screen siren of the song’s title and Freddie Mercury. (The song itself is a nod to his frustrations with studio executives who wanted to restyle his image

 

By contrast, the title of Mika’s fifth album is “My Name Is Michael Holbrook,” the first time he’s formally referenced part of his birth name ― Michael Holbrook Penniman Jr. ― in a musical project. 

“It was written as medicine,” the 36-year-old told HuffPost. “I needed to re-find that young guy who was writing songs in his apartment at 17 or 18. I felt this urgent sense, this need to reconnect with the elation and joy of making music after a good three years of having lost that sensation. At a certain point, you’re like, ‘Well, who am I, really?’ So I kind of used my legal name in order to … write about myself with more freedom

 

 

Released last week, “My Name Is Michael Holbrook” proves Mika hasn’t lost his flair for disco-tinged exuberance. Nowhere is that more apparent than in the album’s leadoff single, “Ice Cream,” a summery bop laden with sexual innuendo. “Tiny Love,” meanwhile, harks back to Elton John or “Bohemian Rhapsody”-era Queen with its anthemic choruses and vocal harmonies. 

But as its title suggests, “My Name Is Michael Holbrook” is also an intensely personal affair. “Paloma” is a contemplative ballad Mika wrote about his sister, who nearly died after falling from an apartment window and impaling herself on a fence post. The sultry, if deceptively titled, “Sanremo” was inspired by the adolescent awkwardness he experienced at age 13 while visiting the coastal Italian city of the title with his famil

 

The “Sanremo” video, which dropped Oct. 4, interprets the song’s escapist lyrics in a wildly different way. In it, Mika plays a closeted gay man in the 1950s who, after kissing his wife and daughter goodbye, ventures through the city streets and into a speakeasy-style bar filled with sailors and drag queens, in search of a male companion. The video, viewable below, concludes with Mika, who has been dodging suspicious glances from passersby, being stopped by a police officer as audio from what sounds like a vintage radio broadcast warns of the “dangers” of homosexualit

 

 

 

The narrative of the “Sanremo” video could be seen as a nod to Mika’s own trajectory as an artist. He came out publicly as gay in 2012, though the media had been scrutinizing the queer subtext of his work for years. “It’s only through my music that I’ve found the strength to come to terms with my sexuality beyond the context of just my lyrics,” he said at the time. “This is my real life.”

 

Much as Mika looked to Mercury and George Michael for inspiration, he has, in turn, helped pave the way for the likes of Troye Sivan and Sam Smith, who have not shied away from expressing their sexuality and gender identity through their music. Still, he believes LGBTQ artists continue to face a “complicated” reality when it comes to the world of mainstream pop

 

“I refuse to define the challenges associated with being LGBTQ purely with media acceptance,” he said. “It’s easier to know you’re going to be given a shot, and from that point of view, you’re going to face less discrimination in the media sense or the music industry sense — discrimination which I definitely suffered, and a lot of artists did much more than me. But that doesn’t mean it’s simpler. Every person’s journey is atypical.” 

 

 

Mika’s defiance of convention has always been present in his live performances, too. In September, he embarked on his six-date Tiny Love Tiny Tour in Brooklyn, New York, with a high-energy set that was, as always, delightfully campy. He’ll return to the concert stage Nov. 10 in London, where he kicks off his Revelation Tour across Europe. 

One thing he isn’t deeply concerned with, however, is commercial viability. After the global breakout of “Life in Cartoon Motion,” his three subsequent releases — 2009’s “The Boy Who Knew Too Much,” 2012’s “The Origin of Love” and 2015’s “No Place in Heaven” — garnered critical acclaim but did not yield an across-the-board hit like “Grace Kelly.” 

If you’re finding yourself a niche artist — which I am — really go to the niche.Mika

The flip side of that cooling reception, Mika said, is creative freedom. In fact, he’d like to divert even further from the mainstream by writing a movie musical or staging an opera in the future. 

“If you’re finding yourself a niche artist — which I am — really go to the niche,” he said. “Think of 15 people. Think of 100 people. What would those 15 or 100 people think?”

“I have no delusions about commercial grandeur,” he added. “My delusions of grandeur are purely storytelling or conceptual ones, and thank God I have those. Otherwise I wouldn’t want to get up in the morning.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mellody]

I noticed meanwhile that I really like the transition from Blue to Stay High. Blue somehow pulls me down - not in a negative way, I love it, it's beautiful, but it also makes me feel quite melancholic. And Stay High is exactly what I need after it, to get high again, it's like being full of energy again after a meditation or yoga class.

[MatanBenYosef224]

Just need to share it my frustration: I Ordered MNIMH from amazon, seems like it was a mistake as the album hasn't been shipped to me yet. I Will probably get it only by the end of the month, which sucks. Really want to hold it in my hands and put it with the others MIKA albums, what a wait 

[Gemz]

https://www.officialcharts.com/chart-news/dermot-kennedys-debut-album-without-fear-heading-for-number-1-on-the-uks-official-albums-chart__27456/

 

Mika's 5th album is currently sitting at #32 on the UK album chart (midweek)

[MatanBenYosef224]

I'm going to try and rank the songs, to A, B, anc C lists, like the radios 

 

A List:

- Tiny Love

- Ice Cream

- Paloma 

- Platform Ballerinas 

- I Went To Hell Last Night

- Blue

- Tiny Love Reprise

 

B List:

- Dear Jealousy

- Sanremo 

- Tomorrow 

- Stay High

 

C List:

- Ready To Call This Love

- Cry

 

 

 

[kreacher]

43 minutes ago, MatanBenYosef224 said:

I'm going to try and rank the songs, to A, B, anc C lists, like the radios 

 

A List:

- Tiny Love

- Ice Cream

- Paloma 

- Platform Ballerinas 

- I Went To Hell Last Night

- Blue

- Tiny Love Reprise

 

B List:

- Dear Jealousy

- Sanremo 

- Tomorrow 

- Stay High

 

C List:

- Ready To Call This Love

- Cry

 

I like this idea because I like them all, just some more than others. I still play the songs on the C list, but if I’m pressed for time or something those are the ones I skip.

 

A list: Tomorrow, Dear Jealousy, Sanremo, Paloma, Cry, Platform Ballerinas, Stay High, Tiny Love, Tiny Love Reprise

 

B list: I Went To Hell Last Night, Ready to Call This Love 

 

C list: Ice Cream, Blue

[NancylovesM]

I love how music is so subjective and different for everyone.  Here we are, all huge Mika fans and yet we can have completely different opinions on which songs we like the best.  It's quite fascinating!!

 

A list:

Tiny Love

Tomorrow

Sanremo

Dear Jealousy

Stay High 

Ice Cream 

I Went To Hell Last Night

 

B list:

Cry

Blue

Paloma

 

 

C list:

Tiny Love Reprise (i wish only Mika  sang  it, tbh)

Platform Ballerinas 

Ready to call this love

[MatanBenYosef224]

16 minutes ago, NancylovesM said:

 

C list:

Tiny Love Reprise (i wish only Mika  sang  it, tbh)

 

 

Yep, I Also wish only Mika sang it, but still I Like it, just miss Mika himself in this track. It's like 4 minutes that mika sings only in like, one of them?  

 

[ellie]

Oh I like this kind of ranking

 

A+ Sanremo, Cry

 

A list: Ice cream, Ready to call this love, Paloma, Blue

B list: I went to hell last night, Dear Jealousy, Tiny love

C list: Tomorrow, Stay High, Tiny love reprise ( this wouldve been an A if it was only Mika singing and Ready to call this love a C without Jack )

 

Z list: Platform Ballerinas

 

[MatanBenYosef224]

3 hours ago, ellie said:

Oh I like this kind of ranking

 

A+ Sanremo, Cry

 

A list: Ice cream, Ready to call this love, Paloma, Blue

B list: I went to hell last night, Dear Jealousy, Tiny love

C list: Tomorrow, Stay High, Tiny love reprise ( this wouldve been an A if it was only Mika singing and Ready to call this love a C without Jack )

 

Z list: Platform Ballerinas

 

So... I Guess you don't like Platform Ballerinas? 

Edit: I Also thinks that Mika should sing RTCTL alone... Jack doesn't add anything special idk  

Edited October 10, 2019 by MatanBenYosef224

[ellie]

22 minutes ago, MatanBenYosef224 said:

So... I Guess you don't like Platform Ballerinas?

 

Something had to replace Make you happy as my most disliked Mika song I guess

 

23 minutes ago, MatanBenYosef224 said:

I Also thinks that Mika should sing RTCTL alone... Jack doesn't add anything special idk

 

I dont think he adds anything special either but I feel I wouldve found the song a bit too cheesy without his growly vocals; I do want to hear the solo Mika version though.