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I’m not always one for pop music.  Early Mariah Carey has a soft spot in my heart, but for the most part I try to steer away from things that have too many pop tendencies.  Then you have Mika: the bright-eyed, Brit-pop wunderkind that has been making some waves over the last few years.  His music is dripping with pop music bubblegum, and for some reason I really enjoy it.

His debut album, Life in Cartoon Motion, was an assortment of sonic gems with his Freddie Mercury falsetto plastered all over.  This new record, The Boy Who Knew Too Much, still has plenty of the falsetto, yet it seems like Mika is really digging his heels in and making better music.  A lot of his songs address that stage in life where people want to hold on to their values and will eventually have to choose between where you came from and where you are going; he adds a catchy chorus and makes it all gooey.

The Boy has a little more texture to it than Life in, and Mika continues to press on with dance grooves and good beats to hook more people.  I wouldn’t have come across him at all, until a friend played “Grace Kelly”, off Life in, and I was hooked.  His voice is what really catches you off guard.  Also, the uncanny way that he sounds like Freddie Mercury is creepy and awesome in the same sense.

Are you tired of the pop on the radio?  Run out and pick up both Mika albums and start committing them to memory.  There will be a time when Mika is going to be huge, and you can say you heard him first.  Let us just hope that pop success doesn’t destroy this boy as it has so many others before him.