Mechanicsville, VA’s own Jason Mraz is back with his seventh record, and it seems as if he’s gone down the white boy reggae hole for real. Listen to the title track and one can hear the unmistakable sounds of a guy listening to too much reggae and then deciding to blend his feel-good acoustic sound with the sound of third wave reggae to less than stellar results.
Do I even need to explain the significance behind the song “Make Love?” Jesus, this guy went off the rails. I wasn’t the biggest fan of his hippie dippie kind of singer songwriter, but the guy has had some good love songs over the years. I’d be hard pressed to find anything worth a damn on this record that could be called any good. Every song is mind-numbingly long, dragging the disc out to just shy of an hour and it feels it. This record draaaaags and you wind up wanting those lost minutes back because Mraz did nothing but waste all of it.
“You Do You” features comedian Tiffany Haddish “rapping,” and dear God, this is the lamest thing I’ve heard all year. Of all the people you could’ve chosen to rap about women and their greatness, you picked Tiffany Haddish?!? This guy has lost his way and the listener is the one who suffers as a result.
Closing track “Gratitude” sounds like some John Denver/Dan Fogelberg sickly sweet happy ‘70s folky shit that will forever grate on my nerves because it feels so forced and weak. Mraz then has the balls to drag this thing out for almost seven minutes, and if that doesn’t cause one hell of a headache, well, dear reader, you have a much stronger will than I.
“Wise Woman” sounds like an early ‘90s pop song, so how’s that for sounding current! “Take The Music” is even more skippable than most of the other trash on the disc, while continuing to try and feel current, “Time Out” features Sister Carol, best known for her appearances in Jonathan Demme’s ‘80s classics Something Wild and Married To The Mob.
This record would have been a bit more notable if it had come out 25 years ago, but nowadays it feels like a last gasp of artistic credibility, like he’s aping No Doubt for going semi-reggae waaaaay back in 2001. He’s lost all the notable qualities that made some of his earlier records and hits even mediocre. This is bottom of the barrel, lowest common denominator crap. Hell, even “DJ FM AM JJASON” features Sublime style lyrics, low-key rapping from Mr. A-Z, and even scratching!! What have I been listening to for the last hour?
I hate for someone’s career to wind up like this, but I hope this guy never makes another record. It’s hard to come back from utter garbage like this. Like the title says, you try to look for the good in almost everything you listen to, but you’d be hard pressed to find anything even remotely likeable from this dumpster fire.