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Mika

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Grade: A-

CD » On pop singer Mika's first album, he proclaims, "So I try a little Freddie / I've gone identity mad!" The 26-year-old London-based, Lebanon-born Mika drops all pretense of "trying Freddie" and becomes Freddie Mercury on "The Boy Who Knew Too Much." The most gifted singer of his generation, with a falsetto so gorgeous he makes castratos jealous, Mika ensures that his synth-heavy, infectious album will be the most fun you will have all year, with a throwback style that resurrects the pure joy and pep of 1960s pop. It's not much different from his first album, but it's just as irresistible.

- David Burger