It Take a Thought to Make a Sound

Jason Mraz burst onto the scene a couple years back with the hit, The Remedy (I Won’t Worry). The song combined rapping and singing that hadn’t been heard since Snow was licking boom booms down. And much like Snow, Mraz slipped into one-hit wonder territory even though the uber-catchy You and I Both was wrongly overlooked by the mass public. Mraz is back with the follow up to his debut album and hopes that he breaks the one hit wonder curse with Mr. A-Z. Mraz is very aware of this as he sings, “For people who write me off like a one hit wonder, gotta find a way from going under.”

The album starts off with the slow, Life Is Wonderful. The song builds up just like the lyrics spell out, “It takes two floors to make a story.” “It takes an egg to make a hen. It takes a hen to make an egg. There is no end to what I’m saying.” Next up Mraz tries to capitalize on the success of The Remedy with Wordplay where Mraz declares himself the “wizards of oh’s and ah’s and fa la la’s”. Van Morrison fans might have something to say about that. Not to mention looked what happen the last time some one made up a fictional title, King of Pop anyone? The video for the song is even more inexplicable featuring Santa playing a guitar out of the Megadeath collection, some dude playing a keytar and Mraz rightfully getting stoned (with actual stones like in The Lottery, get your mind out of the gutter). After Wordplay comes the ill-advised Geek in the Pink which he tries to pass off as a rap song in the beginning.

Elsewhere on the album, Did You Get My Message sounds as if Mraz started to listen to too much Beach Boys, but not enough sunk in for it to be a good song. Mr. Curiosity starts out as a slow song that, for no reason, goes operatic in the middle. Seriously, opera. He gets back on track with Clockwatching, the closes he gets on this album to the quality of You and I Both although he could have done without the crowd sounds near the end of the song. Please Don’t Tell Her is another keeper. More wordplay shows up in The Forecast, “Let’s hang out the do not disturb (sign) me up for the storm." The album ends with Song for a Friend and much like the opener; it takes its time to build to a climax. The song then ends with a choir (this could possibly be an entirely different song put on as a hidden track) and is a good way to end the album.

Song to Download – Clockwatching

Mr. A-Z gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.