The Boy Who Knew Too Much (album)

The Boy Who Knew Too Much is the second studio album by British singer-songwriter Mika. It was released on 21 September 2009, under Casablanca/Universal Republic in the United States and Island in the United Kingdom.

Background
Mika worked with producer Greg Wells, who also produced his debut album Life in Cartoon Motion. The album was written in Olympic Studios, London, which began in June 2008. In September 2008 he moved to Rocket Carousel Studios, Los Angeles, where the album was recorded. Mika has described the album's themes as dealing with his teenage years, and "in a sense is kind of part two" of his first album. In contrast to his first album, which "contained innocent fairytales", Mika pitches the new album's songs as "gothic Tim Burton-esque fantasies."

The album was originally titled We Are Golden after the first single from the album, "We Are Golden". On 20 July 2009 in an on-air interview with DJ Jo Whiley on BBC Radio 1, Mika revealed he was considering renaming the album, because he wanted "something a little more ridiculous." On 6 August 2009 it was confirmed that the album's title would change to The Boy Who Knew Too Much. As with Mika's debut album Life in Cartoon Motion, the album artwork has been designed by Mika's sister (who works under the nom de plume DaWack), the Australian illustrator Sophie Blackall, Airside collaborator Richard Hogg and Mika himself. The artwork has been inspired by children's picture books from the 1940s to 1970s.

Critical response
The album received generally positive reviews from music critics, based on an aggregate score of 70/100 from Metacritic.

Singles

 * "We Are Golden" was the first single from the album. It received its UK radio debut on BBC Radio 2 on 20 July 2009. It peaked at number 4 on the UK Singles Chart.
 * "Rain" was the second UK and German single, released on 23 November 2009 in both digital and physical format.  It peaked at number 72 on the UK Singles Chart, making it Mika's first UK single to miss the top 40. In Germany it peaked at number 56. It was released as the third UK single, on 15 February 2010.
 * "Blame It on the Girls" was the second American and Japanese single from the album. It peaked at number one in Japan but failed to make any impact in the United States. It was released as the third UK single, on 15 February 2010. It peaked at number 72.
 * The song "Good Gone Girl" charted within the Romanian Top 100 on airplay only, without being released as a single.

Personnel

 * Mika – vocals, piano, keyboards, background vocals, background violin


 * Additional musicians


 * Walter Afanasieff – percussion, keyboards
 * The Andrae Crouch Choir – background vocals
 * Lorna Bridge – background vocals
 * Paul Buckmaster – strings
 * Matt Chamberlain – drums, percussion
 * Andrew Dermanis – additional vocals
 * Gary Grant – horns
 * Jerry Hey – horns
 * Imogen Heap – drums, background vocals, keyboard
 * Dan Higgins – horns
 * Alex Millar – background vocals
 * Audrey Moukataff – background vocals
 * Chris Nicolaides – background vocals


 * Cherisse Osei – drums
 * Owen Pallett – violin
 * Tim Pierce – guitar
 * Fortune Penniman – background vocals
 * Paloma Penniman – background vocals, additional vocals
 * Zuleika Penniman – background vocals
 * Bill Reichenbach Jr. – horns
 * Dan Rothchild – bass guitar, background vocals
 * Fabien Waltmann – keyboards
 * Martin Waugh – guitar, background vocals
 * Greg Wells – keyboards, drums, bass, percussion, guitar
 * Ida Falk Winland – background vocals
 * Lyle Workman – guitar