Mika's "Celebrate" And "Make You Happy": Catching Up

So I was in France for nine days, and didn't have time to stop and listen to these new Mika tracks from upcoming third album The Origin Of Love until now, because, quite frankly, I was too busy walking till my feet ached so my ass doesn't get fat from eating pastry after pastry over there.

So here's a bit of a catch up for me, and anyone else whose eyes glazed over when they first saw the word "Mika." First of all, new single "Celebrate" sounds like Alphabeat meets The Sound Of Arrows, but was produced by Nick Littlemore of Empire Of The Sun, and strangely features Pharrell Williams telling the listener to "stand up" and "have fun." I like it — it gets particularly fun at the 2:32 mark.



The other track is "Make You Happy," about which Mike noted the following on Vimeo:

Here's the first song I wanted you to hear from my new record, "The Origin of Love." This is not a single but a song I really love and wanted to share with you.

I commissioned a short film which I felt perfectly captured the sentiment of the track. The film was directed by Iouri Philippe Paillé and was made in Montreal. This is where the entire album started taking shape a year ago with Nick Littlemore at Planet Studios in Papineau.

And this is from the official press release for the announcement of the album:

Completely self-created and self-imagined, The Origin of Love has been a two-year DIY labour of love for Mika who has put together everything on the record himself, flying around the world under his own steam personally assembling an incredible roll call of collaborators – in addition to Nick Littlemore and Pharrell Williams Mika has also worked with William Orbit, Benny Benassi, FrYars, Greg Wells (Katy Perry, Adele), Klas Ahlund (Robyn’s Body Talk) as well as working with some brand new unsigned musicians he found himself online. 

So far, so good.