After the success of 'Life in Cartoon Motion', which sold five million copies worldwide, Mika releases a second album on Friday inspired by his adolescence and 1980s pop ? 'The Boy Who Knew Too Much'.

The young English-Libyan singer, just turned 26, scored one of the surprise hits of 2007 with his debut album, thanks to uncomplicated and colourful pop smashes, 'Relax, Take It Easy' and 'Grace Kelly'.

"'Life In Cartoon Motion' contained a lot of childhood references," he said.

"The new album is, I think, more adolescent. It has joy, it has fragility, it's got a little hint of bitterness ? all these things that I felt when I was a teenager," the singer recently told The Observer magazine.

"Teenage dreams in a teenage circus/Running around like a clown on purpose/Who gives a damn about the family you come from?/No giving up when you?re young and you want some," says 'We Are Golden', the first single which combines a show-like choir with the guitar riffs of Queen.

Musically, 'The Boy Who Knew Too Much' also leaps forward in time, leaving the 1970s for the 80s.

Throughout the album, the artist brings to mind Freddie Mercury, George Michael and Jimmy Sommerville, but it is the British production trio Stock, Aitken and Waterman who are most strongly evoked.

In the 80s, their songs, interpreted by Kylie Minogue, Bananarama and Jason Donovan, dominated the charts thanks to their unstoppable, but very formatted, saccharine-pop sound.

'We Are Golden' and 'Blame It On The Girls', the next single, are both power-pop songs, designed for heavy radio play and stadium tours.

The record is crammed with piano ballads, such as 'I See You' and 'By The Time', which will be sure to have lighters waving in the air when they are played live.

It also features Mika's trademark falsetto vocal acrobatics, which characterised 'Life In Cartoon Motion' in moments of colourful flamboyancy, occasionally bordering on pomposity.

The bravest moment of the record is 'Pick Up The Floor'. Creating a mood between cabaret and a jazz club hosting Julie Andrews, the singer's androgynous voice delivers an unsettling number recalling the film 'Victor, Victoria'.

In the main, the new album may lack the freshness that catapulted 'Life In Cartoon Motion' to success. In harking back to the superstars of the 80s, Mika is like the character in his video 'We Are Golden' ? a teenager imitating pop stars in front of the mirror as he struggles to find his identity.