The cover is extremely misleading. Depicting a figure in s shiny hooded top clutching a large 80s-style ghetto-blaster like he's running from the pigs after being sprung spraying grafitti, you might be forgiven for expecting an urban album of snotty street tales that's all about the beatz. Fizzy guitar-driven pop was certainly the last thing I would have expected. Ok, so you should never judge a book - or a CD - by its cover, but, well, it helps to connect with the target audience if there are some clues in the artwork.
The former Longwave drummer Mikey James surrounds himself with myriad influences for this solo outing, but the core stylistic features are glam in origin. The lyrics make endless references to rock 'n' roll, and the songs are very much about bounce and the feelgood factor. I think it's supposed to be fun, but the smiles feel rather forced somehow. There are moments - such as on 'Come On Along' - where Mikey comes on like a cross between Alvin Stardust and Shakin' Stevens with some piston-paced programmed drumming. This isn't a good thing, and the electro rock 'n' roll of 'Song for Chuck Berry' is cringe-inducingly corny: thank dog it's only a minute and a bit long!
Mikey does crank it up a couple of notches in places to achieve a full-on, fuzzed out sound, as exemplified by 'Ghost of Rock 'n' Roll' but it's just way too obvious and way too cheesy to be remotely cool. The same is true of the low-slung synth bass that dominates 'We Don't Stop 'Til the Kids "R" Dancin'', which is ruined by the rest of the song, to the extent that I felt embarrassed to be listening to it. While 'edgy melodic music' may be 'in his blood', Mikey's strayed a long way from his punk roots on this album. It strikes me as curious that a man who's clearly old enough to know better should to write a record with the purpose of getting 'the kids to hit the dance floor' as the press release puts it. By which I mean that if nothing else, it's abundantly clear that the guy's out of touch. 'Mikey Jukebox' is a teeny-pop album with guitars. It's at least fifteen years behind the times, it's not cool, and I'm pretty sure the 'kids' won't be getting down to it.
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Mikey Jukebox on MySpace
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