| Mika - Life in Cartoon Motion |
| Label: Casablanca |
By: Patton
Mar 10 07 |
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Lately I had been putting off writing my review of new artist Mika and his release Life in Cartoon Motion because he is already all over commercials and the airways. When I first heard the single “Grace Kelly,” I loved his voice. I thought he had such a great voice and that the song was a mix of Queen, Bowie and Elton John, but much more modern (Yes, I heard this song and watched the video on VH1.). Recently, I have noticed another song from his debut album, “Love Today,” on a cellular phone commercial. I know a lot of people notice artists for the first time by hearing one of their songs in a commercial, but isn’t this just selling out to get more exposure? I don’t know if I can honestly respect an artist that decides to be commercial whether it is from the beginning of their music career or near the end. I understand that some artists are put in these commercials beyond their control because the label has control over their catalogue. Could this be the case with Mika? The album was a bit hard for me to get into even before I heard him on commercials. Some songs just were too repetitive and didn’t seem to go with the flow of the rest of the album. It almost seemed like Mika was trying too hard to prove himself.
I read a story that he party crashed a label party and started playing on stage to get noticed. Apparently it worked, and I’m not denying that he has great talent. He even has guts. I would love a record deal I suppose, but I would never have the courage to do that in order to get it. So, with this new knowledge one would think it isn’t really a shock he would commercialize his music. It does fall into that genre. You know the one, where you hear it all over the city’s adult contemporary radio station. Maybe even on the top 40 music station. It is good music, but the album doesn’t live up to the single. I had high hopes for this album, thanks to all the press and exposure, and it fell short for me. Maybe it won’t for you. Mika is also an animator of some sort, doing his own cover work and his animations can be seen being ran in commercials for VH1 and MTVmikamusic.com. So, in ten years or so if Mika is no longer making music, we won’t have to ask ‘whatever happened to…?’ because we will be able to guess he is an artist of another sort.
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