Jason Mraz: Beautiful Mess - Live on Earth
Jason Mraz: Beautiful Mess - Live on Earth
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Published by Penguin, out now, paperback, 1122 pp, £18. |  |
Monday, 16, Nov 2009 05:15
Warner Records, out now.
What's it all about?
Beautiful Mess provides a new interpretation of some of Mraz's best known tracks, taken largely from the charting album We Sing, We Dance, We Steal Things. In this case, the live recordings of the CD are complemented by a live DVD, which features all of the tracks from the audio disc with a few more visuals on top.
The DVD is perhaps the biggest draw here, not only because it offers visuals, but also because it extends the tracklisting beyond the songs available on the CD, without missing out any of those tracks. As a result, there are no audio tracks that cannot be seen on the DVD, which no doubt helps to make this collection as a whole seem more cohesive and pleasing to both the ear and the eye.
Who's it by?
Jason Mraz is currently appearing in South America on tour, with green issues high on the agenda. Mraz is featuring alongside Sting at the Sao Paolo About Us festival, following on from his recent honour granted by the Environmental Media Association. Along with Sir Richard Branson, Mraz was honoured for the use of environmentally aware initiatives in recording and touring.
His website notes the impact that taking a year off had on his music, as Mraz decided that he had a set of desires that simply did not align with working full-time. They included the desire to raise a cat, shop for groceries and do his own laundry. From these rather mundane yearnings, Mraz claims he rediscovered his talent for songwriting and that, after his year off, "real songs started coming out of me".
As an example...
"Nothing's going to stop me but divine intervention/I reckon it's again my turn to win some or learn some/I won't hesitate no more, no more/It cannot wait, I'm yours." - I'm Yours
What the others say
"Mraz's Mess is a collection that will most likely be of interest only to his core fans, since he simply doesn't have a deep catalogue of material from which to draw." - Slant
"Jason Mraz likes to milk his time on stage; the opening guitar chords of Sunshine Song seem to go on for an eternity before the song starts proper, but once it does we're treated to a lovely, upbeat song." - The Music Fix
So is it any good?
OK, I want to be able to say this is a great album. I really do. And mostly, it is pretty good. The DVD helps, too. I suppose the only drawback is that many of these songs are relatively unknown and many of the others are fairly forgettable. However, there is plenty of variety in terms of the genres of music that are represented, while Mraz fans are bound to welcome the common thread that unites all of the tracks, making them unmistakeably Mraz.
For once, the fact that Beautiful Mess was recorded live does not detract more than it adds - unlike many live recordings, this album still has strong vocals and a tangible commitment to quality, while also managing to pick up on the energy of the crowd. Mega-hit I'm Yours is a particularly fine demonstration of where this is the case, as the audience can be heard singing along, without Mraz's own vocals becoming lost.
So there are positives and negatives - for Mraz fans, as I already said, the positives are numerous. The only reasons to mark this album down are that it firstly does little to truly stand out from the crowd, while secondly I just don't believe it will attract many newcomers to Mraz's music.
6.5/10
Bob Bardsley