Mika
Life In Cartoon Motion

THE REVIEW

Michael Holbrook Penniman, known as Mika, was not wise in choosing the genre to perform.
Pop artists like him, in fact, are often overrated (but not in his case) by majors and the public, but always underrated by independent magazines and critics. Mika, in fact, is pop, with no subgenres, and he comes quite close to the disco and glam of the '80s in pure Jake Shears style, the leader of the Scissor Sisters. But let's go in order.

The album was released on February 5, 2007, and contains 11 tracks that move between the wildest dance pieces and ballads played entirely on the piano. On the first listen, you are accompanied into the atmosphere by "Grace Kelly", the first single that establishes the talent of the young English artist. "Grace Kelly" is magnificent: cheerful, fun, pulsing, with a music video that celebrates it perfectly in which the costumes and brightly colored walls only accentuate the sound of this absolutely irresistible song. Trying to listen to "Grace Kelly" without dancing is torture, it's impossible not to even smile. Then it proceeds with "Lollipop" and the pace doesn't change. Cheerful, fast, almost childlike, it urges everyone who listens to get up and jump. "My Interpretation" makes anyone regret not being an artist: it catapults the listener onto a festival stage, as if in front of him there were thousands of people, behind emptiness, and he had the strength to break down any barrier just with the power of his voice. Another great piano piece, also cheerful and lively. Then it continues with "Love Today" and from here on, you enter the "dance" part of the album. The deep notes of the piano serve as drums and a chorus of female voices rises somewhere in the speakers. Certainly one of the best tracks on the album. And the tone perhaps drops with "Relax (Take It Easy)", where pop is abandoned and the most authentic and wild house is touched, and even the music video linked to this track accentuates its club atmosphere with women dancing on multicolored concentric cubes.

"Any Other World" then acts almost as a thread between this splash of house and the rest of the album. Played on the piano, slow and melancholic, like a pause from the cheerfulness that had permeated the album until then. Right after, here's "Billy Brown", another track to admire. The rhythm isn't the best, but it definitely also leads to "nodding your head", without mincing words, that's what you do when listening to this song. Then we have "Big Girl (You Are Beautiful)", the eighth track on the album, which still shows the marked presence of dance influences in the album, fast and dynamic, also with a background of some piano notes. "Stuck in the Middle" is very similar to "My Interpretation", played on the piano and is a real punch in the stomach, as if Mika wanted to say "if you didn't like the album, it's not my business," because even here the tone doesn't drop, same liveliness, same movement. But Mika shows his skill in "Happy Ending", demonstrating he can give rhythm and liveliness even to a slow piece like this: a female choir accompanies Mika's voice, strictly in falsetto. Four minutes and thirty seconds of music to listen to with your eyes closed, letting yourself be lulled.
The album then contains two extra tracks: "Ring Ring", a pop ballad that has nothing to envy "Love Today" and "Over My Shoulder", definitely the slowest piece of the album, entirely on the piano.

It's a great album; there are drops between one track and another, but overall it does not bore and is pleasant to listen to. Mika will surely continue his singing career, even though he certainly hasn't started a revolution. He doesn't represent the new Freddie Mercury, even if their voices are very similar. Yet the greatness of Mika lies in having recorded and released a pop piece without Rap or R'n'b influences, as often happens today. The synthesizer, widespread in successful songs nowadays, is nonexistent (or almost). Therefore, we must acknowledge this artist, of Lebanese origins, the courage to be a pop island in a rap ocean.