Pop star in no rush to produce second album

1:47pm Thursday 27th March 2008

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POP poser Mika is refusing to pen his second album, it seems, because the record company are hurrying him and it's affecting his "creative process".

Now, while I strongly believe that the longer it is before the curly shriek-bucket inflicts himself on the charts the better, there are those who will be irked by the news.

If a musician is given a contract, presumably requiring them to produce a certain amount of work in a set amount of time, is "creative" difficulty really a good enough excuse for not coming up with the goods?

Those who say it is (and I have no doubt there will be many Kate Bush and Guns n' Roses fans amongst them), and that the presious little pop brains should be left to formulate their gems for as long as they like. And if that means waiting 15 years for album number two, then so be it.

And it can be argued that pressure from the record companies on artists to write quickly is the cause of "difficult second album" syndrome, and the reason why The Strokes never quite lived up to that initial promise.

Sure, they say, manufactured acts like Westlife can manage to release an album a year - but then, they don't have to worry about any of the fiddly writing bits, and can spend their time instead mentoring X Factor contestants and having lovely hair.

But then, the Beatles released one or two albums per year, plus stand-alone singles, and no-one can deny their creative integrity. Perhaps Mika should stop checking out "weird visual theatre", as he claims to be doing, and put pen to bloomin' paper.