Jason Mraz - 'Mr A-Z' (Atlantic) Released 06/02/06

Wow, a 300-word review on this? Really? We could some it up in two – but we wouldn’t be that fickle. We should have known from the album cover  - a picture of himself, skinning up off his own cd. To the music and opener ‘Life is Wonderful’ showed some promise to  be honest. Acoustic guitar, soft vocals etc. But looking at your watch waiting for it to end after the first minute or so is never a good sign. Still the Shakira-esque “la la la’s” towards the end save it slightly, despite the dodgy echo effect on the vocals.

Then came track two – ‘Wordplay’. It was kind of a weak-rock version of track one. It even had the “la la la’s”. We actually looked to check on i tunes if it was in fact the same track still playing and then tried to skip to the next one, ‘Geek in the Pink’ but to our horror an ‘error’ occurred and the track continued to play. Mild panic washed over as we persistently tried to stop the track to no avail. Eventually it ended and track three began. Relief was momentary. Over produced scratching and some ‘ghetto’ dialogue was followed by a decidedly poor pop track. Talking fast, Mister Mraz, doesn’t constitute rap. Quick, get out some Spanish drums and maracas and change genre again! “Once I slip into position I’ll swing you and turn you all around” sings Jason.

The final track ‘A song for a Friend’ takes us back to the beginning with an acoustic guitar, a bit of piano and nice calm vocals, making the whole thing like a bad rollercoaster. An eclectic mix of genre’s can be a good thing, don’t get me wrong. Ryan Adams has proved to be the master of this, master being the operative word in that he has mastered each and every one of those genres, not used them as an excuse to compensate for the last shoddy attempt.

Searching for some positive points to salvage the poor boys reputation was being made increasingly difficult due to the persistent whine-funk popping in my ears. It just gets you angrier every time you listen to it. It sounds like Maroon 5 meets Backstreet Boys smothered in cheese and shat out by Kelly Clarkson. Jesus.