(Island/Universal)

Sugary, syrupy, disposable pop from U.K. chart-topper

Mika did it tough as a kid, escaping the 80’s war in Lebanon to become a refugee in Paris, eventually finding a new home in London. Here he began his musical mission via a series of adverts before cracking it big with the single, Grace Kelly. Leading off this debut album, it apparently is about identity confusion and about how managers tried to manipulate his image – be more like Craig David, they supposedly said. No chance, and he proves it here. This is irritatingly chirpy pop fluff, two-dimensional boyband stuff without some other guys to share the blame. The saving, er, grace of this is producer Greg Wells, who’s worked with everybody from The Deftones and Rufus Wainwright to Paris Hilton. He’s done a great job giving some shape if not substance to these songs – the strings on Any Other World, the Foreigner-meets-funk mix of Relax (Take It Easy) or the frothy disco of Love Today. The musical foundations do suggest some odd possibilities, like some Robbie Williams-lite with a dash of Freddie Mercury flamboyance and some Scissor Sisters posturing. But ultimately this is pop as dippy, gaudy, unsubtle and ephemeral as it can be. 

*½

BILL HOLDSWORTH

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