It\u2019s been established for a couple years now that every Mika song is a shameless rip of Queen\u2019s Greatest Hits Vol. 1<\/i>. <\/i>Each one champions operatic piano, a jones for theatrics, and a vocal stack that stretches all the way to planet Mercury (Freddie, that is). Mika himself admits to aping the man in what is still his greatest song, the glam-infused, multicolored pop sing-along \u201cGrace Kelly\u201d when he says, \u201cSo I tried a little Freddie,\u201d leading into a virile, near-perfect Mercurian bellow that makes his case as Freddie\u2019s unpublicized, long-lost son. Nothing has changed the second time around.<\/p>\n
The transition between Life In Cartoon Motion<\/i>, Mika\u2019s 2007 debut, and The Boy Who Knew Too Much<\/i> is completely seamless; even the album covers look identical from a distance. He hired the same producer, Greg Wells, whose rap sheet \u2013 which is more of a pop sheet \u2013 includes Katy Perry\u2019s \u201cWaking Up In Vegas,\u201d Kelly Clarkson\u2019s \u201cI Do Not Hook Up,\u201d and, in a couple months, Adam Lambert\u2019s debut. Here, the Queen imitations are as pristine and realized as ever, and there\u2019s even a bonus track on the deluxe edition called \u201cLover Boy.\u201d Just like the King Of Camp himself (or should that be the Queen<\/i> Of Camp?), Mika is fully flamboyant but sexually ambiguous throughout. \u201cWe Are Golden\u201d appears to be an anthem for bedroom-ridden teenagers who feel like they can take on the world but don\u2019t know in which way. With lyrics like \u201cI was a boy at an open door \/ Why are you staring? \/ Do you still think that you know?,\u201d it also doubles as a salute to gay pride \u2013 complete with color diction and a full-fledged gospel choir.<\/p>\n
But \u201cWe Are Golden\u201d and \u201cWe Are The Champions\u201d aren\u2019t carbon copies of each other, as aren\u2019t \u201cLover Boy\u201d and \u201cGood Old-Fashioned Lover Boy.\u201d While Queen\u2019s opuses are regal, climactic, and quaking, Mika\u2019s are wispier, poppier, and much more effervescent, and they might taste like cotton candy spiked with bourbon were that edible. In general, they\u2019re optimistic and \u2013 to be frank \u2013 just more fun.<\/p>\n
As the grand chariot rolled on into the \u201880s, Queen became kitschier, more glittery, and harder to take seriously. They revamped their sound to match the morphing musical climate, and they lost what originally made them a blast to listen to. This kind of degeneration isn\u2019t going to happen to Mika, though, because he won\u2019t let it. He transcends the sophomore jinx by not paying any attention to it all. There wasn\u2019t any ambitious desire to \u201cevolve\u201d or \u201cmature\u201d as an artist between albums, verbs that often mar and overshadow that indefinable quality that makes an artist likeable. <\/p>\n
Paul Rodgers recently added (with an actual addition symbol) his name to last year\u2019s Queen album, the cringeworthy and melodramatic The Cosmos Rocks<\/i>. Ultimately, Mika makes a much more suitable candidate than Rodgers to fill Freddie Mercury\u2019s boots. What\u2019s even more respectable, however, and why we can never anticipate the name Queen + Mika to appear on a CD spine, is that we know he will never choose to assume that role. It\u2019s just too \u201cmature\u201d for him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":78,"featured_media":30080,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7940],"rating":[5614],"class_list":["post-41717","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-mika","rating-rating-c-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/78"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41717"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41717\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=41717"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=41717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}