Boy Who Knew Too Much [Import]

Mika | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 24, 2010)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: PID
• ASIN: B0034JV5X0
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (36 customer reviews)

Editorial Reviews

About the Artist

THE BOY WHO KNEW TOO MUCH Produced by Mika and Greg Wells (Katy Perry, P!nk), this record is the highly anticipated follow-up to 2007's LIFE IN CARTOON MOTION, which sold over 5 million copies worldwide. The new album features guest contributions by Imogen Heap and Final Fantasy's Owen Pallett, and contains brilliant first single of the same name, "We Are Golden". Life has moved in accelerated motion for Mika, a Beirutborn, London-bred songwriter, since releasing his debut album in 2007. Claiming the space between Freddie Mercury, Elton John, David Bowie and ABBA, Mika's infectious songs - pop anthems such as "Grace Kelly," "Love Today," and "Relax" - rocketed the singer to international acclaim within months of his album's release. Critical praise landed squarely on his shoulders across the globe for his keenly-honed choruses and unmistakable three-octave range, unlike any other voice in pop music. Award nominations followed throughout 2007 and 2008, garnering Mika Grammy's, Brit Awards, World Music Awards, and the UK's most prestigious songwriting honor, The Ivor Novello Award. Fashion designers such as Matthew Williamson and Christian Louboutin designed bright, dazzling stage attire for him to match his own color-soaked, exuberant live show. When the dust finally settled - closing a world tour in Paris, France, where he played to an arena packed with 65,000 people - Mika began to set his sights on his next record. Following the age-old motto "if it ain't broke, don't fix it," Mika returned to Los Angeles, where he made his first record, and loaded his recording studio with visual inspiration, toys, posters, 60's children's books, trinkets and more to create a world entirely of his own where the songs could grow. The resulting album, a firecracker explosion of effervescent, gorgeous piano pop, shows Mika building upon the strengths of his debut (every chorus is instantly memorable) while expanding arrangements and styles to create a record that is even more joyous and unique than his first. THE BOY WHO KNEW TOO MUCH straddles a line between childish naïvete and world-worn sophistication; Mika likens this transformation as the shift from childhood and LIFE IN CARTOON MOTION's innocence to something more akin to adolescence. As such, the songs on THE BOY WHO KNEW TOO MUCH are ebulliently bold, embracing the mysteries, melodramas, adrenaline and vitality of one's teenage years to startling affect. The arrangements are bigger and more beautiful than ever before, and the album is underpinned by an open-hearted and accepting idea of what living in the 21st century means in all its contradictory, complicated glory. Title track "We Are Golden" opens the album with a chorus that could only be described as "absolutely amazing," featuring a massive choir, defiant declarations and a driving beat.. "Blame It On the Girls" marries skittering percussion with floor-stomping piano and a swoon-worthy chorus, while "Rain" - featuring droplets of violin plucks from Owen Pallett and additional programming by Stuart Price - is a bona fide dancefloor anthem, Mika's stunning voice floating effortlessly over pillows of synths. "Toy Boy" features sweeping, 40's Disney orchestration, and "Dr. John" mixes a 60's sunlit, hand-clapped chorus with a plea for clarity from confusion. Indeed, from stirring ballads to candy-coated choruses, THE BOY WHO KNEW TOO MUCH retains a breadth of vision that speaks not only to Mika's extraordinary melodic sensibilities, but also to the incredible stories he tells within his songs. From Mika, we would expect nothing less.

Product Description

Deluxe version includes a 70 minute DVD, which includes documentary content of the Parc des Princes show in Paris along with live video performances from that show. The DVD also includes the official video for "We Are Golden" and the Making of "We Are Golden". --This text refers to an alternate Audio CD edition.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pure Joy To The Ears!, September 23, 2009

By 

snoogins4life "brokenone" - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Boy Who Knew Too Much (Special Edition) (Audio CD)

I literally fell upon MIKA one day while surfing the internet about a year back looking for; of all artists; The Scissor Sisters, and saw the video for "Grace Kelly" by someone named MIKA on the sidebar. I was instantly intrigued and so...I clicked. Thank God I did, for if I hadn't I may not have discovered the pure joy of his amazing music.

MIKA's music brings a simplicity, child likeness, yet undeniable depth with it. His songs aren't just extremely catchy or poppy, but are so full of depth, with most telling a little story of some sort. It's great to have this in a world of shallow pop/rock and rap crap music.

His sophomore album, "The Boy Who Knew Too Much", builds on the same fantastic childlike sounds and concepts of his first album "Life In Cartoon Motion". He starts off with a wonderful teen anthem aptly titled "We Are Golden", a cry for acceptance by peers and adults alike. He then gives us a wonderfully addictive little ditty called, "Blame It On The Girls", followed by "Rain", which I LOVE!!! A song about hating the rainy days and longing for the sun. "Dr. John" I'm not quite sure about yet.

Then we come to what I believe MIKA to be the BEST at, and that is his ballads. "I See You", is a hauntingly beautiful song about, feeling invisible in relationships. His classic training in piano comes into full swing here as he shows us just how dang good he is on those slick ivory keys.

"Blue Eyes" is a fantastic song with a wonderful almost reggae type tune to it. And "Good Gone Girl" is a sad story wrapped in a fun sounding sticky sweet pop song. At the half way point we get to my three favorite songs. First, is the George Michaelesque "Touches You" which has such an addictive chorus you'll be repeating it over and over again in the car. 'I wanna be your brother, wanna be your father too; won't let you run for cover even if they want us to. I wanna be your sister, wanna be your mother too, I wanna be, wanna be whatever else that touches you.' After that is my FAVORITE song on the album, "By The Time", such a sad and emotional ballad put into such a mellow and relaxing song. 'Don't wake up, won't wake up, can't wake up, no...don't wake me up'. The song is so beautiful and the lyrics tells such a sad yet well known story in today's age. Then lastly, "One Foot Boy" is very different from anything MIKA has done previously. His pop has always been straight up pop, but this song has such a heavy almost hip/hop groove flair to it, yet it works so well.

"Toy Boy" takes the album into a very different direction up to the end. Giving the album more of a jazzy/blues flavor, with MIKA's ever presence funny coups and puns thrown in. "Pick Up Off The Floor", is a fantastic blues ballad and a sad story as well. "Lover Boy" and "Lady Jane" wrap up the album with more clever depth and quirkiness. "Lady Jane" being a strange; and I do mean STRANGE song, about a girl who falls for a man and ends up mutilating herself and becoming a fish...yeah...a fish...but for MIKA, it works.

MIKA's voice, I could only describe as a male version of Mariah Carey. He is able to hit very low registers but is best know for hit a very high tenor, or is it high alto for guys, I'm not sure. He has a beautiful voice and a fantastic ability at writing. His cleverness and originality is undeniable and if he ever decided NOT to do music I'm sure he could have a career as a children's author.

Pick up both albums since they are both shining examples of what MAINSTREAM music could be, if people could put their clothes on and focus on the music and not the nudity, profanity or oneupmanship that has become today's music industry. "The Boy Who Knew Too Much" is definitely worth being in your collection.

Best songs:

"Touches You"

"By The Time"

"One Foot Boy"

"Pick Up Off The Floor"

"Rain"

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pleasing Pop Parade, September 22, 2009

By 

Jonathan Walters - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Boy Who Knew Too Much (Audio CD)

Pure fluffy pop from start to finish and I loved every minute of it. I considered rating this 4 stars because of the inevitable comparison to Life in Cartoon Motion. That comparison lowers things a little. The two albums have a very similar feel and any song from either album could easily fit on the other. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing, especially if you like the upbeat feel Mika's music has, but I can't help feeling that I bought Life in Cartoon Motion a second time. However, I decided to rate it 5 stars on the merit of two songs: Good Gone Girl and One Foot Boy. The former is different enough to liven things up a bit, it almost has a little bit of a hip-hop feel to it. The latter is just plain fun. It seems like a depressing topic, a boy with one foot, but Mika makes a light upbeat tune out of it.

There was only one song on this album that I dislike (and I dislike it immensely): Toy Boy. It feels like, I dunno... polka-pop. That's as terrible as it sounds. Every other song easily reaches the standard set by his debut album and I doubt anyone who liked that will regret buying The Boy Who Knew Too Much. So, buy it! Love it!

As a note of interest, the song Blue Eyes was included which was originally released as part of the Songs for Sorrow EP. So, if you want the other songs from Songs for Sorrow as well, you might be better off just purchasing the other two singles (Lady Jane - a good song and Lonely Alcoholic - one of my favorites) as an mp3 download.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars another cd of fun, September 22, 2009

By 

Darren Gbole (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Boy Who Knew Too Much (Audio CD)

i fell in love with mika and his music when i first heard "grace kelly." loved his first album, life in cartoon motion (especially the song "love today"). i know that when an artist comes out with a smashing debut their second effort tends to pale in comparison. the new cd is basically the same sound and feel as mika's first cd. i love the sound and feel of the first cd...so i do like the sound/feel of the new cd. if you like cartoon you will like the boy (if you didn't like cartoon,you will not like the boy). i love his sound, but i was not expecting a duplicate cd. the songs on each cd can be traded with the songs of the other. it is a good cd. my favorite songs are: we are golden, touches you and one foot boy. i give the cd 5 stars because it is a good cd, it is fun music and mika is a great singer.