Mika
Life In Cartoon Motion

THE REVIEW

Mika is objectively the pop phenomenon of 2007. There is a lot of buzz about him and his hit "Grace Kelly", a song that became a staple in the music chronicles more for the incredible vocal resemblance to His Holiness Freddie Mercury than for its (undeniable) melodic potential.

And "Grace Kelly" is the opening of the multi-platinum "Life In Cartoon Motion", the debut album of this Lebanese guy who does absolutely nothing to hide his main aspiration ("so I try/a little Freddie"); besides hopes, however, a good artist must also have the songs. And ours seems, at least from these first songs, quite talented but a bit inconsistent. And while "Grace Kelly" is certainly not the best track on the album but at least made a breakthrough, "Lollipop" is a rather childish and unconvincing nursery rhyme.
With "My Interpretation", on the other hand, Mika shows that he knows how to navigate the rather tricky territory of the semi-ballad à la Robbie Williams (could it be the Lebanese who will lay flowers on the declining Robbo's artistic grave?), subsequently balancing it with the vitality of "Love Today", pulsing bass and light guitar strums in the right places for a track eternally suspended between spoken parts and celestial falsettos, probably the song Justin Hawkins has been dreaming of writing for years.
It continues with a dip into the more danceable eighties with the fresh single for the Italian market "Relax, Take It Easy", followed by the decent slow piece for voice and strings, "Any Other World".
"Billy Brown" lands on another of Mika's influences, the Beatles (in this case those of Penny Lane), garnishing them with tons of the usual falsettos. Then "Big Girl (You Are Beautiful)" arrives, repetitive and frankly unattractive, leading to the piano-pop of "Stuck In The Middle" (again the shadow of good old Freddie) and the pompous closing of "Happy Ending", amidst ecstatic layers of falsettos and swirling string arrangements.

An album, in conclusion, that juxtaposes excellent qualitative peaks with drops in tension that induce reasonable doubts.

Only time will tell if the aspiring king of pop will make it or if the fierce rivals will rise from their ashes. For me, rather than the new Freddie Mercury, we are facing the (possible) new George Michael.

It's up to you to decide if that's a compliment.

Or not.