Jason Mraz - Look For The Good (Review)

Jason Mraz - Look For The Good (Review)

6/28/20

I don't usually talk politics, but at some point, we must point out that the world is an unpredictable shit-storm of insanity. In 2020, we've seen more recent racism murders, the COVID-19 pandemic, Kobe Bryant's death, new ebola breakouts, and aliens probably landing next month. Sometimes when I lie awake at night thinking of all of this, I just hope for a superhero to spread a message of positivity to the world. Someone or something to tell us that everything is going to be okay soon. Luckily, our boy Jason Mraz decided to step up to the plate, being one of the only mainstream artists brave enough to drop an album this year. I grew up on Jason Mraz's positive attitude, great acoustic pop, and wonderful songwriting. On June 19th, however, he threw all but his positive attitude right out the window with his latest LP "Look For The Good". Let's see how it turned out.

In 2018, Mr. A-Z dropped his first studio album since 2014's "YES!" called "Know." This album, despite how short and lacking it can be, stands as one of my favorite Jason Mraz albums to date. My first listen had me in love, particularly with tracks 1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 8, and 10. My first listen of "Look For The Good", on the other hand, had me endlessly repeating "Wise Woman" and avoiding any other tracks. This album is definitely a shift in style from his very consistent 3rd, 4th, and 5th albums. "Know.", his sixth album on the other hand, tried to dabble with various genres, particularly rapping in the perfect reggae bop "Unlonely". Apparently, though, this wasn't just a dabble in the reggae style; it was a warning of what nobody saw coming. "Look For The Good" is undeniably a reggae project. It has a few songs that go in and out of this style but, for the most part, it's all reggae. There's nothing bad about reggae at all, but there are many bad things about this particular reggae album.

Discussing the high points of the album first, several of the songs by themselves are not very terrible. The album feels very full and as if I'm getting a complete experience from my listening. The production was very crisp and felt finished, and despite the very consistent style, the album itself never felt repetitive. Though, good things aside, every album has its flaws. To start, saying this album only had a "very consistent style" was a huge understatement. At many points in the album, I found myself checking back at the track list to find I was on a different song. This is solely because every song is so god damn indistinguishable from the last in every element. The album had songs that weren't bad on their own, but it also had some songs that were very bad. The album also seems to lose itself in the last three tracks. Track ten of twelve "Hearing Double" was one of the most absurd and dumb things in this album. It's so clearly just a lazy excuse to not write another more full five minute song. Next comes probably the most tonally generic song on the album "The Minute I Heard of Love". And finally, "Graditude"; the song that took itself way too serious for its own good. It was honestly just seven minutes of Jason trying to milk the message of the album title repeatedly in perhaps the dumbest way possible. Maybe I thought this track would be a much different and slower resolution to the album's non-existent arch, but I was wrong. It was just another pretty bad reggae-pop song.

In conclusion, this album wasn't great, but it still managed to thrive in places that no other album I've reviewed on the blog has. While the tracks did get boring, they stayed consistent, and nothing was ever very repetitive. On paper, this album may seem far worse than it actually is. My favorite track was obviously "Wise Woman". By the looks of it, it's just another five-minute reggae love song, but when you listen to it, the song becomes an undeniable masterpiece. This is definitely in my top ten Jason Mraz songs, and maybe my top five. My least favorite track was "My Kind" for probably the same reasons as most of my other least favorite tracks from my album reviews. It was simply a shining example of a track in a normally repetitive style that was utilized the worst. Giving this album a 1-10 using half numbers, I give this album a 6.5/10 with a five-word description of: “positivity milked into reggae mediocrity ".

Image sources:

Various Shutterstock images (edited by yours truly)