ENGLAND'S MIKA: ALL THAT OR FALLS FLAT?

One of my favorite lines (and there are SO many): "You take your girl and multiply her by four/now a whole lot woman needs a whole lot more...No need to fantasize since I was in my braces/a watering hole with the girls around and curves in all the right places." - From "Big Girl (You Are Beautiful)"

Summing Up: It's like musical crack - completely and utterly addictive...and it's LEGAL! Sweet mother Chaka!

I have a neighbor whom I'm convinced is Freddie Mercury (from Queen of course) reincarnated.

He sings Queen's most operatic tunes while he's tuning his 4 x 4, wore a boa and kitten heels last Halloween and I swear he leaves his living room blinds up just so we can all catch him dancing sans shirt to "Killer Queen" once a week.

As dedicated as I am to my assertion that "Mr. XY" is somehow channeling Mercury in a bizarro X-Filesean way, I think he has met his match in music man Mika.

I first heard the UK fave "Grace Kelly" about a week ago (a bit behind my British buds) but I was instantly smitten with Mika's quirky, totally unique sound - his performance style and looks are a lot like a young Mick Jagger from the Stones, but he sounds like Queen meets pop star George Michaels back when he was known for singing with a Scissor Sisters edge. Okay, he's better looking than any of his forefathers, but he doesn't rub it in and that's awesome.

Now, of course, you hear his "Love Today" touting the latest cell for a certain network, but it's not the first time he's sung for his supper. He was once a jingle junkie for the likes of Orbit Gum back in his adopted hometown of London. Don't hate him because he sings beautifully.

His debut is called, appropriately enough, Life in Cartoon Motion. That's exactly what his music is like - lively, colorful, unapologetically, unabashedly vibrant. It's like what a caffeine-laced rainbow ending at the biggest party in the universe would sound like. It's often high-pitched, remarkably solid and just downright clever, dammit.

Now, having made that obvious comparison (Mika even mentions trying a "little Freddie" in Grace Kelly's chorus and the graphics on his album are decidedly 70s funky), let me tell you what Mika is not.

He's not rude and obnoxious. Is that even possible in a scandal-obsessed new millennium? Apparently. There are no odes to a razorblade or other angst ridden, suicidally melancholy, self-absorbed yawns on his debut. It's colorful and pop-y, even when he slows it down.

He's not flamboyant for the sake of being flamboyant. He's flamboyant because that's who he is and he's glorious at it!

He's not one to beg for your affections, though tossing a lil' love his way obviously would be welcomed. Because this freshman effort is kind of the chronicle of what he experienced as a kid on the outside looking in, there's a lot of "love love me" in the message, but yet it just never seems whiney. You don't want to bash his skull in like you do punksters with the same message, but instead cradle his head in your lap and run your fingers through his luxuriously wavy mane whispering: "There, there, sweetie, it'll all be okay. Mama's here."

He's not an angel. In fact, his stunning dark good looks actually could go either way - mad and devilish one moment, then joyous and innocent the next...It's a bit unsettling that someone can so easily slip into another character, but as you'll see in his video for Grace Kelly, it's also fiercely attractive and entertaining.

He's not a devil either. Yes, he asks "am I too dirty, am I too flirty?" but it's not really an admission of guilt as much as it is just a cheeky little game. Cheeky, yeah, that's it.

He's not an actor - but he could be. Witness the wild variety of emotion - from gleeful mania to crippling sorrow - that his face portrays in his videos and tell me that he couldn't be a thespian!

He's not all full of himself. He sings about the beauty of "big girls" (any guy who knows that real women have curves is a stud in my book) and being a geek. He somehow manages to make himself out to be unpopular, despite all his blazing hot talent. In fact, he makes uncool look so cool that you'd much rather be at his table in the cafeteria than with the jocks and cheerleaders. You GOTTA give the guy props for that.

He's not a whiner. Yes, many of his songs sound as if they were plucked from his past and that past wasn't always pretty, but everything has been polished to such a gleaming shine that the ultimate message is that anything is possible, not that life sucks.

He's not a poseur. He writes as well as he sings. In the tradition of great songsters like Elton, Bono, etc. he crafts delicious melodies like fragile crystal snowflakes - too unique to copy and so delicately woven it'll leave you in breathless wonder. Oh yeah, and he taught himself how to play piano, though he sounds every inch the professionally trained musician.

He isn't Freddie Mercury. Yes, he sounds a LOT like him and even does his own zaftig love song (mentioned at the opening) and Freddie did also love his "Fat Bottomed Girls," but once you sit and listen intently (as I have), you will no doubt share my opinion that he is so awesome in his own right that he really doesn't need Freddie (no offense). He doesn't need to be Grace Kelly, Freddie or anyone else for that matter, he's perfect just as he is.

Basically, Mika is what mainstream music has been missing. Can I get an "Amen!"?

Love him or hate him, you can neither escape him nor ignore him and that, my friends, is the measure of a true mover and shaker.

So, I'd say Mika's "Life in Cartoon Motion" is ALL THAT.

For more info on Mika, check out his Myspace page here:

http://www.myspace.com/mikamyspace

Or his official website here:

http://www.mikasounds.com/us/

You'll be singing like Freddie...er, Mika in no time!