The Music Man: Mika is back

The+Music+Man%3A+Mika+is+back

Justin Curto, Mill Valley News editor-in-chief

About five days ago, I got on Spotify to listen to Mika’s more-than-stellar last album, “The Origin of Love,” since I had one of its songs stuck in my head. I hadn’t listened to Mika’s music in easily a year and, upon looking through his discography, I was surprised to find not one, but two new singles — both preceding his forthcoming new album, “No Place In Heaven.” I desperately wanted to write about his music, but his newest single at that time, “Last Party,” had been released nearly a month ago. A few days later, though, I went to Mika’s Spotify page again and saw he had just released a new single entitled “Good Guys.” Given those circumstances, I basically had no choice but to write about Mika’s new music.

Imagine Freddie Mercury has a classically-trained voice, performs in a few musicals on London’s West End and is mentored by David Bowie before embarking on a solo career, and you basically have Mika. A Lebanese and British singer, songwriter and pianist who is fluent in English, Spanish, French and Italian and has a reported five-octave vocal range, Mika is essentially perfect. His debut album, “Life In Cartoon Motion,” managed to be 2007’s ninth-best selling album and still earn a 1.5/10 on Pitchfork. While Mika’s next two albums, “The Boy Who Knew too Much” and the aforementioned “The Origin of Love,” did not become as popular, they’re equally as good as “Life In Cartoon Motion” and permanized Mika’s signature mix of power pop and glam rock.

Mika’s new music extends on this style very well, which makes me really happy as a fan of him. The first single off “No Place In Heaven,” “Talk About You,” leaves behind some of the electronic experimentation of “The Origin of Love” for a more upbeat, acoustic backing a la “Life In Cartoon Motion.” The lyrics go perfectly with Mika’s trademark happiness, too, which makes the song all the better.

The next single, “Last Party,” is completely different. It’s a very minimalistic song, beginning with only Mika’s subtle vocals and a piano. The chorus builds to include an orchestra, and the song culminates with the powerful second chorus. Mika’s less-theatrical vocals provide for a change from previous music, too, and make the song seem pretty special.

Mika’s newest single, “Good Guys,” kind of mashes “Talk About You” and “Last Party” together. Like “Talk About You,” it’s built around an acoustic guitar and, like “Last Party,” it starts a little slow (but builds pretty quickly). The lyrics are built around the question of “Where have all the good guys gone?” and Mika sings them flawlessly as always.

The fact that these three singles are similar yet different makes me excited for “No Place Like Heaven.” I can’t wait to hear how Mika puts all the sounds together on his next album, and will definitely keep an eye out for it in the future, just like you (hopefully) will too.

(Visited 109 times, 1 visits today)