Album Review – Jason Mraz, “Love Is A Four Letter Word”
Megan Purazrang
WCB Music Writer
Jason Mraz
Love Is A Four Letter Word
Released – April 13, 2012
Producer – Joe Chiccarelli, Rick Nowels
In April of this year, Jason Mraz released his newest endeavor and fourth studio album titled “Love Is A Four Letter Word.” It followed the success of his last record released in 2008, “We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things.”
As we experienced with the previous album, Mraz can serve the mainstream well, and although he challenges his common ground this time around, he still delivers tunes with his beloved pop-rock style.
The intro “Freedom Song” is filled with jazz elements, including brass instrumentation. The melody is hip and the back-up vocals hold nostalgic blues moments.
That stylistic lean is found dispersed throughout the record. It pushes the genre guidelines that Mraz as stuck between in the past. This has a positive and negative impact. It is good to see the expansion. It can be hard to stick with a musician’s career as fan without some form of growth involved.
Mraz has always been great with love ballads, and for fans that cherish those songs most; there is no room for disappointment. “The Woman I Love” is without a doubt on a list of wedding song options with a flowing, dare we call sappy lyrical melody (in a good way of course).
The fourth track, “I Won’t Give Up” is by far the most popular single on the album. It is a simplistic tune with soft guitar and powerfully inspiring words. Moving down the tracks “93 Million Miles” is a heart-filled moderately paced song about coming home (after all, home is where the heart is right?)
As the album comes to a conclusion Mraz takes on a similar jazzy vocal style comparable to Michael Buble in songs “In Your Hands” and “Be Honest.”
For fans that have admired Mraz from the beginning this album will be a new avenue of interest, and for newcomers curiosity is upon you.