AMG Review of Mr. Serious

Charles Spano
All Music Guide

On Mr. Serious, the criminally underappreciated Mark Mallman takes his love of Ziggy-era David Bowie and T. Rex to new heights. "I Just Want to Play Piano" is as glittery and cocksure as anything on Electric Warrior, and if Mr. Serious isn't quite as consistently mind-blowing as that glam staple -- well, what is? There are a few lackluster tunes like the trudging "Executioner, but for the most part, Mr. Serious is a euphoria-inducing slab of rock. "True Love" is an epic three-and-a-half-minutes of rock bombast, and the piano ballad "Simply in the Distance" enlists a melody familiar enough that listeners will swear it's from a lost, late-'70s Elton John collaboration. Mallman has never marched in step with any trends, and Mr. Serious hardly meshes with any contemporaneous releases. But Minneapolis' own glam superstar has more heart than Interpol, less pretense than Franz Ferdinand, and a sense of retro that seems entirely genuine and anything but simply nostalgic.