The album’s title speaks to the abstractness of Mika’s sound and concept. Even the album’s artwork looks like a modern pop-art take on Elton John’s groundbreaking Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. John’s sound is also heard in Mika’s whimsical ballad “Billy Brown.” With an upbeat piano score Mika tells the story of a simpleton named Billy Brown: “Billy Brown had lived an ordinary life/ Two kids, a dog, and a cautionary wife/ While it was all going according to plan/ Then Billy Brown fell in love with another man.” “Billy Brown,” although an entertaining addition to Life in Cartoon Motion, could easily fit between John’s “The Ballad of Danny Bailey” and “Bennie and the Jets.”

Mika also pays homage to Queen’s legendary Freddie Mercury. On the album’s first track “Grace Kelly,” Mika expresses his struggle to adhere to the record industry’s idea of what he should be: “Should I bend over/ Should I look older/ Just to be put on the shelf/ I tried to be like Grace Kelly/ But all her looks were too sad/ So I tried a little Freddie/ I’ve gone identity mad.” Mika’s tribute to “bigger women” in his track “Big Girl (You are Beautiful)” might as well be a 2007 version of Queen’s “Fat Bottom Girls.”

The enchantment of Mika’s debut rests in his glossy upbeat dance hits; however, when he slows the tempo he looses his appeal. Slower tracks like “My Interpretation,” “Any Other World,” and “Erase” will have you seeking for the next dance track, especially “Erase” which sounds like a missing Robbie Williams song.

Mika will be playing at Center Stage Saturday June 16.