MIKA

I had no idea what I was getting into when I bought this CD. When I go to a music store, I literally just take an album off the shelf and purchase it, which is what I did with Mika.  It’s a gamble I take, hoping for good returns.

This album feels like one of my old old children’s sing-along cassette tapes with Old McDonald (which I don’t listen to by the way….really….) . The second song Lollipop especially annoys me, sounding like it came from a Sesame Street episode, yet at the same time had me wanting to sing along with it. Curse you Mika! In “Big Girl (You Are Beautiful)”, as Mika sings, “You take your skinny girl, feel like I’m going to die, ‘Cuz a real woman needs a real man here’s why: You take your girl and multiply her by four, now a whole lot of woman needs a whole lot more,” I can’t help but listen attentively and laugh along with the lyrics. “Happy Ending,” my favorite track on the album at the moment, provides a great finale to the album.

Aside from the rather shallow lyrics though, Life in Cartoon Motion gives an exuberantly uplifting vibe. At the moment, it satisfies my current musical taste, which is a more whimsical and upbeat sound. Just like The Feeling, Mika leaves me with a sense of elation. I couldn’t help but to constantly think of how similar he reminded me of Robbie Williams, though, both in voice and sound.

The Feeling

I had previously heard of them when watching a concert in HD back at home during Memorial Day Weekend. They had played two songs in the concert (“Fill My Little World” and “Sewn”) which I immediately fell in love with.

The album itself is perhaps just as catchy as those two songs, and engrosses the the listener the whole way through with upbeat and harmonious piano tunes. The first track, “I Want You Now,” was chosen wisely to the grab the listener with its upbeat poppy melodies. “Never Be Lonely” had catchy lyrics that could belong to a television theme song, while “Fill My Little World” will continue to be one of my favorite tracks of the album. Indeed, the album did give me a whimsical and just plain old fun “feeling.” It’s enough to brighten anyone’s day as they listen to the album. Even the calmer songs such as “Rose” can leave a sense of tenderness as singer Dan Gillespie-Sells sings, “I love you, especially today, especially this way. Rose, I want you, you leave me this way. Rose, I love your delicate way.”