Born Michael Holbrook Penniman, London-based singer/songwriter Mika was trained from childhood under the guidance of an austere Russian opera professional and later studied at the Royal College of Music, performing and recording for the Royal Opera House while still in his teens. Yet, scouring Mika's debut album Life in Cartoon Motion for his classical influences will render you as vexed and empty handed as the plethora of reporters and fans incessantly attempting to glean information about the guarded 23-year-old emerging pop star's sexuality. In an interview with Rhapsody Mika professed, ""I was always obsessed with the art of the pop song. You know, the craft that goes behind a pop song."" With Life in Cartoon Motion, Mika strives to carve his own niche in the pop genre by incorporating his impressive five-octave vocal expanse with an eclectic array of melodies influenced by pop legends like David Bowie and Prince.
Mika's explosive vocal capacity and unnaturally high falsettos, which practically beg comparisons to Queen's Freddie Mercury and the Darkness' Justin Hawkins, pleasantly chaperone the majority of Life in Cartoon Motion, but cloy as the album progresses and almost verge toward obnoxious by the album's conclusion with the somber and brooding, yet unaffecting, ""Over My Shoulder.""
Like a Saturday morning cartoon, Mika's first pop endeavor entertains and satisfies with its carefree, lighthearted moments like ""Grace Kelly"" and ""Love Today,"" but subsequent attempts at profundity, while providing balance, are difficult to take seriously. Lyrics like ""I tried to live alone / But lonely is so lonely, alone"" from the soft ballad ""Any Other World"" feign depth, but fail to pick up the shovel and actually dig. Mika's mellow tracks also tend to drift, meander and resolve without the crisp focus his upbeat singles possess.
However, despite its lack of finesse with the soft numbers, the album's livelier tracks glaze over the album's pitfalls with a diverse, sugary concoction of danceable vibes and lilting, piano driven melodies.Mika's first-ever single, ""Relax, Take it Easy"" (originally released in 2006), borrows from Cutting Crew's ""(I Just) Died in Your Arms"" and reanimates it with a Real McCoy dance/pop flavor, generating a sleek club sound suitable for the ""A Night at the Roxbury"" soundtrack. Other winners that convey Mika's breadth in style includes the jaunty, innocent, after-school special ""Lollipop,"" the angsty, piano hammering ""Ring Ring,"" and the rollicking, disco-influenced ""Love Today,"" which currently companions the Motorola Red ad campaign.
The crown jewel of the album, and incidentally the No. 1 single in most of Europe, is undoubtedly the jocular, lighthearted ""Grace Kelly,"" which creates the most compelling rationalization of Mika's comparisons to Queen. The tap dancing ""Grace Kelly"" showcases Mika's soaring vocals with temperance and balance, eschewing the abrasiveness of his pervasive falsettos that saturate the latter stages of the album.
In this hit single, Mika pays homage to Queen's pop pioneer Freddie Mercury and satirizes the identity crises the recording industry foists upon obsequious, sell-out musicians, singing, ""I try to be like Grace Kelly / But all her looks were too sad / So I try a little Freddie / I've gone identity mad."" ""Grace Kelly"" hints at the maturity and consistency Mika's idols like Bowie and Prince boast—skills Mika must hone on his ensuing albums in order to emerge as a permanent fixture in the pop music scene.
