Remember when...

Jason Mraz - "We Sing.  We Dance.  We Steal Things."
Release Date: May 13, 2008

The funny thing about music these days is that it seems one hit single is all that's needed to launch a successful career in the industry. Any well-known artist will make a million dollars off of a track with their name on it, and because of this I find I'm extremely critical of any song I hear ten times in one hour on the radio. When I first heard Jason Mraz' single "I'm Yours" I liked it, but I ignored his album because I felt it would be the only song worth listening to. It's a trick I've seen all too much with modern music: release one song the public will love, sell millions of mediocre CDs for twelve bucks each.

Jason Mraz classifies himself as an MC, mainly for his ability to spit out tongue-twisting lyrics rapid fire. It's one of his claims to fame, and it's very prevalent on his 2001 album Waiting For My Rocket To Come. I really don't care for it. It's unique but lacks any positive musical quality and I'd always find myself skipping tracks where the focus is set on his word flow. When the time came to take a listen to We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things. I was very unenthusiastic.

My initial negativity may have something to do with it, but I was blown away by the album. What I expected was overdone love ballads with terrible lyrics and Mraz' "boop-boppidy-boop" beat boxing solos. While we still need to put up with the beeps and the boppidies, the album focuses on lively melodies, strong vocals, positive messages, and a style I've seen come from nobody but Mraz himself.

The album begins with "Make It Mine", an extremely funky track that really sets things off right. You'll hear a soft guitar playing in the background, but instrumentally the focus is on a few trumpets present at different parts of the track. Mraz doesn't do anything major lyrically or vocally in the verses and bridges of the song, but redeems himself in the chorus, when he sings "I don't want to wake before the dream is over...I'll make it all mine." This lyric prepares the listener for the rest of the album, which for the most part stays extremely positive.

The album rolls on with "I'm Yours", the track that's likely responsible for most of the record's sales. It's a slow love song, and Mraz accentuates his boopidy-boppidies multiple times (this time with a doodja-doo-doodja spin), but it's not bad. The beat is smooth and each verse flows pretty nicely. Besides, it could be worse: what if it was a love song featuring a female vocalist with a groany voice and sappy "other people don't understand" lyrics? What if it was like the next track, "Lucky"?

The song has absolutely no progression and shows that Mraz still isn't perfect. In fact, he uses the exact same formula in the songs "If It Kills Me" and "A Beautiful Mess". The song "The Dynamo Of Volition" shows he's still wants to show the world he likes to rap, but unfortunately it adds another song to my "skip" list.

Thankfully, these are the only negatives on the album. Mraz boasts his great song writing in songs like "Love for a Child" and "Live High". Lyrics like, "When you're young, it's okay to be easily ignored...I'd like to believe it was all about love for a child," remind me that he can still write a great song. Even songs like "Coyotes" and "Butterfly", which don't have any lyrics that really stand out, feature that Mraz-style funk that make the songs exciting and enjoyable.

The song that stands out most to me after multiple listens is "Details In The Fabric" featuring James Morrison. It's the slowest song on the album, but amazingly positive and very high-quality musically. Mraz and Morrison both sing, "Hold your own, know your name, and go your own way...if your shocked it's just the fault of faulty manufacturing."

We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things. is a great record. It's a bit disappointing that I was only able to enjoy eight of the twelve tracks, but eight tracks is enough to justify twelve dollars. Mraz shows that he can pull off anything from funky/smooth trumpet rock to slow acoustics with powerful lyrics, and the variety of the album is something not seen in most records today.