Saturday 24 February 2007



2iN1: Pelle Carlberg and Mika


I am forever indebted to I Guess I’m Floating for bringing Pelle Carlberg to my attention. Like his fellow Swede, Emil Svanängen (of Loney, Dear), Carlberg excels at the art of crafting exquisite moments of lyrical genius set inside gorgeous pop melodies. I have been absolutely smitten with “How I Broke My Foot and Met Jesus” since first hearing it. It’s taken from his 2005 album, Everything. Now!, which gives you an idea of what to expect from his latest, In a Nusthell, to be released on March 28.

Pelle Carlberg, “How I Broke My Foot and Met Jesus”

Pelle Carlberg online: official | Myspace | more mp3s | buy Pelle Carlberg at Insound


On the other end of the spectrum is Mika. Born in Beirut in the middle of the 1980s, Mika’s family moved to Paris to flee the war, eventually ending up in London (don’t they always?). Traumatized and displaced in his youth, Mika found solace in song and knew his destiny lay in music. Comparisons to Rufus Wainwright (and there have been many) don’t necessarily refer to sound as to the eclectic mix of influences the two share. On “Relax, Take It Easy”, Mika channels the voice of another Wainwright devotee, Jake Shears of Scissor Sisters. This is no mere copycat performance, though; Mika is an accomplished singer, and his vocal acrobatics will dazzle. Is Mika “Over The Top”? Definitely so, and all the better for it. (I have no idea if the foreign woman speaking at the end of the song is really supposed to be there–it’s not on the streamed track available on Myspace–but i think it’s hilarious nonetheless.)

Mika, “Relax, Take It Easy”

Mika online: official | Myspace | more mp3s | buy Life In Cartoon Motion


As for the whole notion of doing 2 artists in one post (hence 2iN1), do I smell a potential feature? Leave your comments, tell us what you think.





by J. Di Gioia | 2 Comments »

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 24th, 2007 at 6:45 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

2 Responses to “2iN1: Pelle Carlberg and Mika”

Ash May 25th, 2007 at 12:47 am

PLAGUE PARK – HANDSOME FURS

Did you submit your blog or tag your post to the blogsearch.sg ?

Did you submit your blog or tag your post to the blogsearch.sg?

bill p June 4th, 2007 at 9:25 pm

interestingly, i just saw pelle play in nyc on saturday and he covered mika’s “grace kelly.” he did a good job of it too.