Monday Music with Marty

Happy Monday? Last month I gave you a heads up about one of my new favorite singers, Amy Winehouse, whose album, Back to Black, is dropping on March 13 and whose song "Rehab" I just love. Well, add another name to your shopping list: Mika, whose song "Grace Kelly" is one of the catchiest tunes I've heard in a long time, and whose album, Life in Cartoon Motion, also drops in March, on the 27th (though you can already find a bunch of tracks online if you look in the right places). Take Rufus Wainwright, make him less moody, and add some Freddie Mercury-ish attitude, and you've basically got Mika's sound. It's piano-driven pop, and it's fresh and cool and I hope he takes off in a big way. The video for "Grace Kelly" is fun, and it's already getting a lot of airplay on the MTV Hits channel. Listen for yourself here and check out the video below.



And while I'm on the subject, I burned one of my old-fashioned, typically eclectic "State of My iPod" mixes this weekend, a collection of all the songs currently on heavy rotation. If you're at all interested, here's what's on it (with selected links so you can sample some of the tracks; the unlinked ones — with the exception of the second Mika track — are on iTunes):

1. Mika - Grace Kelly
2. Amy Winehouse - Rehab
3. Lily Allen - Smile
4. Fall Out Boy - This Ain't a Scene, It's an Arms Race
5. Justin Timberlake - What Goes Around Comes Around
6. Robbie Williams - She's Madonna
7. Nelly Furtado - Say It Right
8. Gwen Stefani (with Akon) - The Sweet Escape
9. Jay-Z - Show Me What U Got
10. The Shins - Phantom Limb
11. Cold War Kids - Hang Me Up to Dry
12. Jason Mraz - The Beauty in Ugly
13. Mika - Stuck in the Middle
14. Mat Kearney - Nothing Left to Lose
15. RJD2 - Ghostwriter (remix)
16. Corinne Bailey Rae - Trouble Sleeping
17. Norah Jones - Thinking About You
18. Amy Winehouse - You Know I'm No Good (feat. Ghostface Killah)
19. Regina Spektor - Fidelity
20. Vanessa Hudgens - Come Back to Me
21. Steve Jobs - Macworld Keynote (remix)

And finally, if you like Lily Allen's "Smile" (her album Alright Still comes out tomorrow), check out this alternate version by Mark Ronson.