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Like its predecessor, The Boy Who Knew Too Much is an eclectic work, lurching between exuberant pop, vaudevillian knees-ups, disco and sombre ballads. Mika would probably describe the album as 'kaleidoscopic', but it can come across as scattershot and unfocused.
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His serious moments are as hard to comprehend as a Chuckle Brother tackling a eulogy: you know he must feel emotion because he is a human being, but you are constantly expecting the arrival, stage right, of a pantomime cow.
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Mika's faith in the campy excess of Freddie Mercury/Elton John-style pomp pop is bracing. But over the course of an album, the shtick's charm erodes.
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At the core of these songs are gleaming melodies that rarely fail to hit the mark, which is why even the single 'We Are Golden' is tolerable despite the best efforts of a gang of horribly exuberant kiddie backing singers.
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By the time the pop-induced sugar rush wears off you realize that, besides being done before, these songs have definitely been done better. Worse yet, all you've got to show for it is a headache.
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UncutBut none of it recaptures the sheer commercial inevitability of his debut. [Nov 2009, p. 96]
User score distribution:
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Positive: 51 out of 63
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Mixed: 2 out of 63
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Negative: 10 out of 63
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Aug 21, 2020I really liked this brilliant album and its themes, the universe of it. I also like the contrast between the dark lyrics and the joyful melody :D
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May 4, 2013
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Oct 9, 2011