Mika: Life in Cartoon Motion

I was rendered speechless when I first saw Mika on tv.


All I saw is a skinny 20-ish guy with a big wavy shock of brown hair and skin tight clothes bouncing around. He's super hyper. Like a kid on a 24-hour sugar rush. It was a little - scary, for the lack of a better word.

But his songs started growing on me so I decided to get the CD for a change of taste from the mainstream music (read: manufactured pop, hiphop, rap and all those that people condemn oh-so-much but listen to as well) I feed my mind with. I was mildly surprised that the whole of Life in Cartoon Motion does not consist entirely of hyper-lala-along songs.

If you want a break from your normal taste in music, this is the CD to get. Listen to the 10 tracks on it and you'll find that Mika is just a singer/songwriter who writes and sings about, well, basically anything and everything under the sun. If there is one word I would use to describe his music, it would be honest. Because even though the lyrics and beats are repetitive, they speak to you with truth. The songs are easy to sing along to - that is, if you don't try to strain your vocal cords too much by trying to hit a note that is about two octaves higher than your normal pitch. And the beats get really addictive.

Grace Kelly is quirky but cute. Mika gets all crazy and colourful in his funky songs, Lollipop (which sounds like a cheerleading song), Love Today (which anyone can probably recognise from tv), and Big Girl (You Are Beautiful) (hats off to someone who would sing about big girls - how many have you seen so far anyway?). Relax (Take It Easy) is simply what the title implies while Stuck in the Middle has an repetitive accompaniment that gets you addicted after a while. He also has slow songs which, I suppose, most would consider to be more inclined to the "normal" side. My Interpretation is a song that is easy to relate to. Any Other World and Billy Brown are nice on the ears with easy beats. Happy Ending gives an appropriate ending to the album, with its simple message of one that is jaded and resigned to a not so happy ending. There is also a hidden track in the CD if you listen close enough.

With an album cover like this and such happifying songs, I would say that Life in Cartoon Motion is definitely worth buying.