Life In Cartoon Motion

Take a light sprinkle of Freddie Mercury, add a dash of Beck, mix with a drop of Prince, a pinch of Bolan, Stir well eh voila! ladies and gentlemen, please meet Mika. Life in Cartoon Motion is the debut album from musical virtuoso Mika, the sort of goose-bump-brilliant star that British pop. Debonair, with a touch of degenerate dandy, Mika has a stunning, you-wouldn’t-believe-it life story (born in Beirut, grew up in the war, a father held hostage in an embassy in Kuwait, self-imposed exile in Paris before settling in London) and you have the first chapter in a story that is destined to keep us enthralled for the foreseeable future. you may already be aware of his signature song, ‘Grace Kelly’, a sensational 4/4 opera set to a technicolour pop backdrop. The infectious pomp of ‘Grace Kelly’ became a benchmark for where Mika wanted to go, with the results displayed in gloriously full effect on Life in Cartoon Motion. A songwriter, performer, producer and orchestrator, Mika’s songs combine a heady euphoric rush with darker unexpected elements: daytime melodramas and night-time tales of love, loss, abandonment, hope and happiness. The album also comes with some brilliant artwork created by Mika himself. His pop debut finds the crosspoint between a Baz Luhrmann soundtrack and a classic seventies episode of top of the pops.