Review - Jason Mraz - Love Is A Four Letter Word
Jason Mraz has long been one of my favorite singer songwriters, and I know I am not special in that. He first grabbed our attention with the catchy and poppy tunes from his debut ‘Waiting For My Rocket To Come’ (which I feel never quite got its due), and he tried to follow it up with more of the same on his next album, which peaked higher, but had almost no successful singles. After some time, Mraz came back and blew us all away with the worldwide smash “I’m Yours”, which also earned him several Grammy nominations.
This time around, Mraz is again following in the footsteps of what has been commercially and critically successful for him and he has made an album more in the vein of his last, ‘We Sing, We Dance, We Steal Things’. His fourth album ‘Love Is A Four Letter Word’ takes what he learned from the softer tone and quiter, more restrained vocals of ‘We Sing…’ and sees what else they can do. ‘Love’ is completely void of a hit single (except for the first off the album, “I Won’t Give Up”, which debuted at number 8 and quickly fell), but that doesn’t speak for the album. ‘Love’ is all about, well, love. Mraz seems to has always been an expert at writing about the tried and true subject, but in ways that make it interesting and fun again. While we have all heard a million songs where a guy grabs his guitar and tells us about some lucky (or unlucky, depending on the song) gal somewhere, Mraz finds a way to make it fresh each and every time. Lead single “I Won’t Give Up” and “Everything Is Sound” are early examples of how Mraz isn’t going to change what he is singing about, but rather just how he says it. What makes this album so great is that it doesn’t seem to matter whether Jason is talking about being in love or losing one, he never brings you down. Every song is lovely, and at the saddest, tender. Mraz has no time for sadness, but plenty for exalting the powers of the heart. In the years since his debut, it feels like he has been listening to a lot of Jack Johnson, as his music has taken on a tone of “it’s all alright, we’re all in the together, let’s all hold hands around this campfire on this beach while I strum my guitar”. You know what I mean? Listen to: “I Won’t Give Up”, “Everything Is Sound”, “93 Million Miles”, and “In Your Hands” PS – I am LOVING all the lyric videos. Not too expensive, but a really nice touch. |
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