Jason Mraz – We Sing, We Dance, We Steal Things
Anyone who visits this site or knows me understands that my taste in music changes regularly, and moves back and forth depending on my mood, time of year, life events, and many other circumstances. With that said, you should not be that surprised to see a review of Jason Mraz’s new album “We Sing, We Dance, We Steal Things”.
I admit, I found the debut by Jason Mraz, no not his staple radio hit filled “Waiting for my Rocket to Come”, his acutal debut (or what most people who have been longterm fans deem his debut), “Live at Java Joes”, an acoustic filled, intimate performance that had the feeling of something great to it. But after signing to a major label he sort of seemed to cave in to the demands of that label and tried to produce “hits”. He had a few. But the music suffered. I’m sure that his bank account didn’t, but his soul must have. Otherwise why create something like “We Sing, We Dance, We Steal Things”? It is everything those previous records were not. It’s not “Remedy” or “Word Play”. It’s something much better and much more enjoyable.
Jason still has that quick tongue and incomprehensible craziness within his lyrics, but they do seem more meaningful and thought-out than his previous record, “Mr. A-Z”, which really missed the mark. The most enjoyable part of this album is the presence of the horns and strings and the grandiose feeling each track has; from the horn filled danceable “Butterfly” to the beatlesque “Love for a Child” or “If it Kills Me”, which turn it down a notch and bring the listener closer to the man behind the guitar and mic.
The album isn’t all one senerio, it has it’s highs and lows, it’s ups and downs, and meshes genre’s, decades, and cultures…and tosses convention out the window; the end product is a very appealing effort from an artist that had been losing credibility. He has found his actual singing voice, he created music you can dance to, and he stole a little bit of muscianship from those that came before him; but who cares, “We Sing, We Dance, We Steal Things” is too good to bother worrying about a small about of theft from those who came before him.
