Review Summary: Hyperlove is not enough.
Your level of enjoyment of Mika’s newest release strictly depends on whether or not you’ll be able to survive through its first half. Out of the first six songs only “Modern Love” stands tall as a confident exercise in crafting a song that is both catchy and well thought out. Otherwise, the opening title track feels more like an extended intro than a proper song, whereas the remaining songs combine some of the worst issues plaguing modern pop music. There are annoying choruses, under-cooked melodies, cringey vocal effects at the level of Linkin Park’s “One More Light” (the album, not the song), overdose of saccharine, hackneyed lyrics about “crying in the pouring rain” etc. There are some interesting moments, like Mika flexing his lower register in “Excuses for Love,” but mostly the first half of “Hyperlove” is a mild form of torture.
And then there are those spoken word interludes which are an issue that transcends beyond the album’s first half and persists throughout its duration. Mika hasn’t been satisfied with just releasing regular albums lately, and I guess this time he attempted to do a concept release. During those interludes, he is posing as a radio DJ, spitting out pretentious self-aggrandizing speeches and, well, social commentary which reminds me of (God forbid!) consumerism critique by Steven Wilson. Apart from the content of these interludes, their placement in the context of the album is rather questionable. The last interlude “Immortal Dream” consists of Mika delivering grandiloquent promises for you to hear something absolutely spectacular and unparalleled. Setting dubiousness of these claims aside, such an interlude would’ve felt more in place as an intro to the album, but in fact it is a penultimate track. So Mika goes through all that trouble just to advertise the one single song that follows, “Immortal Love,” which is rather nice but certainly does not benefit from Mika’s exaggerated ravings that precede it.
Anyway, now is finally the time to get to the good stuff. Just as I was getting desperate to hear anything worthwhile, things started to change for the better (interludes notwithstanding). “Dreams” comes like a breath of fresh air with its old-school moody synth melody, seductive singing, and uplifting vocalizations in the chorus. The following number is “Science Fiction Lover,” probably the best song on the album, written from the viewpoint of some robots or machines deciding to “make love like humans do.” The song’s melody and structure coupled with sci-fi lyrical content invokes retrofuturistic exercises of old, such as the album “Time” by Electric Light Orchestra. This is the one instance where Mika actually manages to sound witty instead of obnoxious, aptly adding a hint of irony to his message of universal love. Further on, the album retains a certain level of quality, be it the soft guitar melodies of the supportive “Leave Your Problems at the Door” or sexually charged “Bells,” or the 8-bit synth melodies of “Eleven.” The final song already referenced above might be the weakest of the latter-half bunch, but it’s still better than almost anything you can hear in the first half of “Hyperlove.”
I may be a life-long metalhead, but of all mainstream pop artists I have a soft spot for Mika precisely because his albums are normally so uneven and contain a lot of head-scratching choices alongside with some genuinely great songwriting. Unlike a lot of other pop stars, Mika seems to be sincere in all his exploits, good or bad. What he is projecting is what he is, and this album is another example of that authenticity. Beyond all the pretense and overdone theatrics, Mika is a human being, earnest in his intent if faulty in execution, and always enthusiastic about his music. I would maybe suggest to engage in some nitpicking and only listen to a selected handful of tracks if you are not ready to withstand a full Mika album, but it certainly contains some of the best songs he’s ever written.
