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Nothing quite matches the crystal-shattering exuberance of hit ''Grace Kelly,'' but singing along doesn't get much cheerier than with this Cartoon.
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That it doesn't dissolve into kitsch and comedy is a tribute to Mika's gifts. [Apr 2007, p.118]
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Life in Cartoon Motion is so exuberant, so accomplished, so crazysexycool that it's all a little overwhelming.
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When the tempo is slower on certain tracks such as 'My Interpretation' and 'Any Other World' the initial comparison is unavoidably that of one to Robbie Williams or Elton John, but there is none of the dead-eyed cynicism of the former and none of the bellowing oafishness of the latter.
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MojoThe influences here are smart, the music smarter. [Feb 2007, p.100]
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Q MagazineIt is, triumphantly, among the most camp mainstream pop records ever made. [Mar 2007, p.113]
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The test of Mika’s longevity will be how he chooses to progress beyond the colorful kaleidoscope of his debut album.
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As admirable as Life in Cartoon Motion's eclecticism is, it could use more focus.
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SpinSometimes he veers too close to his source material and surrenders to sap... but mostly this U.K.-chart-topping magpie makes good with bountiful tunes and Broadway vocal dazzle that could slay even the High School Musical crowd. [May 2007, p.88]
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At times, it's so relentlessly bouncy and upbeat that you feel like mowing down an entire shopping centre with an AK-47. Yet there's enough promise here to confirm that the hype about Mika is pretty much on the money.
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His elegant songcraft often recalls Freddie Mercury.
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It's irreverent, in-your-face, sexually nebulous, and infuriatingly catchy.
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On the couple of cuts when Mika's campy steez isn't all up in your grill, he's boring.
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Billboard"Life in Cartoon Motion" is like Scissor Sisters-lite: Retro disco with heavy doses of rollicking piano and funk. [31 Mar 2007]
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There’s some great stuff here – specifically Relax, Take It Easy’s sublime falsetto hook - but elsewhere buoyant pop is sunk by relentless vocal mugging and production which wears its influences much too heavily.
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The clunkers come thick and fast.
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The massive dip in quality towards the end, including the progressive worsening through closing, bonus and hidden tracks, is disappointing, considering how well the album begins.
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His music... exerts the allure of the most seductive pop, but does so with the calculation of a predator.
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The suspicion that Mika might have major talent under the plagiarism and cynicism is what makes "Life In Cartoon Motion" so remarkably unlovely.
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Mika makes music that sounds like vegetables with all the flavour boiled out of them. Blandness born out of a fear of doing anything new, interesting, or provocative. Blandness born from a fear of alienating a single person with a single piece of conviction in your music.
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There's virtually zero worth to this album, a combination of zealous experiments with Garage Band and would-be Music and Lyrics soundtrack cuts.
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Shame on the person who made this. Shame on the people who release, market and play this. And shame on anyone who buys it.
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At their most laudable, Queen eschewed good taste in order to make unique records: Bohemian Rhapsody or the baffling Bicycle Race. Here, you get all the kitsch and none of the ambition.... With little behind it except a desire to be loved, the showboating becomes wearyingly relentless.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 84 out of 108
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Mixed: 6 out of 108
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Negative: 18 out of 108
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Dec 19, 2016
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Oct 26, 2012
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AyshL.Aug 9, 2008Amazing.