Reliving Life in Cartoon Motion

found via weheartit

An endlessly fascinating question to ask anyone is what was the first album they coveted. When asking myself this very question, I draw in on a peculiar conclusion. Although Mika's Life in Cartoon Motion was not my first purchase within the music industry, it is the first to appear in my mind. It was one of the first compilations that I completely absorbed, idolised and memorised. Again I stress, it was not the first. Yet it resonates the most in my memory.

To be honest, I'm not entirely sure as to what my ten year old self exactly thought when begging my estranged mother to add this CD to our Kmart shopping trolley. Was it its radically and vividly coloured cover art? Or that I had heard a couple of Mika's songs on the radio and had been swept away by the pure poppy catchiness of it all? Perhaps it was the fact that Mika had something that I as a naïve tween craved: popularity. What I do remember is that I thought it was cool and for all I know, it may have been because of all of the three mentioned reasons.

What does drive our young selves to suddenly like a piece of pop culture and to quickly become obsessed with it? Seriously, I was only ten years old and here I was, thinking that some dude that I had never met, who sung unusually high was the greatest. I think this led me to an almost unhealthy obsession with memorising his music as well. I must have, because for some reason I still can recite half of his lyrics off his album. Always, Mika had a quirky sense of humour as exemplified throughout his lyrics. Take track no. 8, Billy Brown. I used to sing along quite loudly to this song, although I'm not sure as to whether I understood the scale of the issue that the song portrayed.

Oh, Billy Brown had lived an ordinary life

Two kids, a dog and the precautionary wife
While it was all going accordingly to plan
Then Billy Brown fell in love with another man

Yes, I understood that it was about a man in a homosexual relationship. Being my ten year old self though, that's all I understood. I used to chortle relentlessly whenever listening. I would lie back on my bed, CD insert held above my head, absorbing the words inside that were embedded in what seemed like a drunken rainbow that had upchucked onto everything in its path. Needless to say, I enjoyed each and every song, even if I didn't completely comprehend their underlying themes. 
Yet if there was one album that were to stick with me from my first purchases from the music industry, I'm glad it was this one. It's still as hella catchy as it was when I bought it and I love the complexities within it - especially since now I have gained a certain level of maturity and I can appreciate it. I listened to the full CD for the first time in years and it was like the sound of jubilation and helium combined. My dear Mika, you weren't my first musical hero, but you were the first to stay with me.