MRAZ. New musings on love, faith and healing.
The rhymes and perky alliterations in Jason Mraz’s first acoustic set, “Yes!,” aren’t as tonally fanciful and lyrically flamboyant as those in, say, “Wordplay,” “Clockwatching” and “I Won’t Give Up,” in which he rhetorically asks his loved one, “How old is your soul?” But, like the record-smashing “I’m Yours” and his Grammy-winning duet with Colbie Caillat, “Lucky,” the radio-ready cuts of his fifth studio album brim with optimistic vigor.
The 14-track repertoire, which bows at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 this week, dramatizes the heady pleasures of falling in love by mixing Mr. A to Z’s comforting love songs with breakup tunes (“Out of My Hands”) and make-out tracks, represented by his ethereal sitar-and-drums-embellished romantic ode, “Shine,” which he performs with Raining Jane, the all-female folk-rock foursome of Mai Bloomfield, Becky Gebhardt, Chaska Potter and Mona Tavakoli—who cowrote most of the songs with him.
“Shine” moodily shifts from its succulent solos to the sublime duet: “Love travels in the speed of light/ We aren’t that different/ We huddle underneath the same stars/ I see who you really are/ You’re the closest thing I’ll ever get to knowing God.”
Before Mraz croons the calming “Love Someone,” the collection’s carrier single, the album gets off to an auspicious start with the luxuriant sounds the singer conjures up for the instrumental opener, “Rise,” which evokes the bursting blossoms of spring—and rebirth!
In the toe-tapping “Hello, You Beautiful Thing,” the 37-year-old former coffee shop troubadour sings about a magical smile that reminds him that “there’s a God somewhere—and he’s laughing!”
With its lilting hooks and hip lyrics, “Everywhere,” the album’s catchiest track, got us grooving in the wee hours of the morning: “If I wasn’t a party, how could you be the life of me?/ I’m everything in everywhere/ Can you see me in your own reflection?”
Then, in “Quiet,” he contemplates his romantic future: “Empires rise, empires fall/ Will you be my constant through it all?”
A catchy beat leavens the schmaltzy excesses of “Best Friend” and the torchy “You Can Rely On Me,” while a steel guitar “cries” dramatically in the background of “A World With You.”
Rich metaphor
There’s rich metaphor in “Long Drive,” as he pleads with his travel companion to “take the long way home and drive a little slower,” because “the thought of arriving feels like dying/ I’m not ready to go home yet.”
In the head-bobbing, ukulele-backed “Back to Earth,” Mraz puts his busy career in perspective: “I try to stop the world from moving so fast/ Try to get a grip on where I’m at/ Simplify this dizzy life and put my feet in the grass.”
Yes, Mraz covers mostly the same thematic ground—but, it isn’t a problem with him. He enthuses, “These are new musings on issues I’ve written about for a long time: Love, faith and healing. They’re about acceptance, compassion and letting go.”
The track listing’s only cover comes in the form of Boyz II Men’s ’90s ballad, “It’s So Hard To Say Goodbye To Yesterday,” which is made more indelible by Jason’s stirring rendition, with Raining Jane’s gospel-tinged harmonies backing him up.
With its hopeless-romantic sensibility and sunny disposition, the singer’s bright acoustic romp zaps the vitriol out of his heartbreak-induced ditties. After all, love wouldn’t be so memorable if it doesn’t make people as happy as it makes them miserable—!
So, in “3 Things,” Mraz finds a practical way to “soften” the blow: “The first thing I do when my life falls apart/ I go where the love is and let it fill me up inside/ To gather new strength from sorrow.”