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Mika: Album Release Show at Gramercy Theater

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By: Alibastard | in: Music |

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It’s hard to be critical of a show that is so effortlessly fun. The album release gig at Gramercy Theater this past Thursday for the Godspell-reminiscent, mop-headed, 23 year old British break-out Mika, was modestly replete with balloon toting clowns, men on stilts and a ten minute encore that featured the band members in individualized animal costumes. Okay, everyone borrows from the child theatrics of the Flaming Lips. And indeed, Mika himself seems an intrinsic borrower.
His voice is an obvious, and even self-referenced homage to Freddy Mercury (though at moments conjures ex-INXS lead Michael Hutchence and the Scissor Sisters), his songs are young sounding re-incarnations of something not far from Elton John, and his musical stylings reach back, in their better moments, to revive sides of disco, vaudeville and musical theater that are in pretty typical circulation within the zeitgeist these days. More than anything Mika’s sensibility is earnest, if somewhat nubile, and unabashedly playful.

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His on-stage persona is noticeably in-tuned, easily engaging the audience with short, unrehearsed anecdotes and his dance moves are…well, fun. He’s like the pop star for everyone who dances in front of the mirror. And in a way far more relatable than any of the pedistled American Idol pretenders, too busy preening to seem human, even if they did turn burgers before their simpleton rise to fame. He has that quality that marries some talent with an obvious need to turn the broom handle into a microphone and sing his heart out about gay affairs, break ups, brat spats and optimistic chants you only believe by ear. For a freshman performer, this is a great place to start: in the spotlight, without airs, having honest fun without the glitter pedestal that turns divas into psychotic People Mag cover stories.

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Whether Mika can transform his talents into something more lasting will soon be seen. But we’ll be happy to hear him on the radio in the meantime.

Listen to Mika’s Music on his official website
Buy Mika’s album on Amazon

Other brat Brit Pop hopefuls of note:

Amy Winehouse

An almost flawless re-animator of a Phil Spector motown sound, Amy Winehouse waxes super pouty, about her reluctance to do rehab to a background you swear was on the top of the charts in the late fifties.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LD5sahXoj0U

Lily Allen

Melding modern near-hip-hop with old school raggae and then sometimes singing/sometimes speaking quick to it, the modern inflection of Lily Allen’s beats do nothing to dissolve the integrity of the rudeboy roots her music stems from. Her demeanor is addictively bratty and notoriously cute, especially when she swears.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORosVxIg8Tg


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Posted on March 31, 2007

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