New Jason Mraz Album - Love Is a Four Letter Word - Advanced Copy

The track list for the new Jason Mraz album - Love Is a Four Letter Word - was just released, and I know many of you are huge fans (too many in my humble opinion). Since this new Jason Mraz album will not be released until April, I have decided to give it to you to download a few months early.

Ad: Beautiful Time Lapse Painting Video

These links are mostly to download live versions of the songs that will be on Love Is a Four Letter Word, the new Jason Mraz album. Although you won't be able to hear them in all their over-produced glory for a few more months, these downloads should give you a pretty good idea of what to expect. Below are the links to download the new Jason Mraz album - Love Is a Four Letter Word. (Keyword rich post for Google searches =)

01 The Freedom Song
02 Living in the Moment
03 The Woman I Love
04 I Won't Give Up
05 5/6 (Be Love)
06 Everything Is Sound (not available)
07 93 Million Miles
08 Frank D. Fixer
09 Who's Thinking About You Now?
10 In Your Hands
11 Be Honest
12 The World As I See It

Deluxe Version Bonus Tracks:
You Fckn Did It
I Never Knew You

This new Jason Mraz album - Love Is a Four Letter Word - sounds suspiciously like one of those motivational, self-help, positivity train wrecks that many of us are all too familiar with. "I've got peace in my soul" because I "live in the moment." Sigh.

I won't say that it is completely devoid of Mraz's usual inspiration, but I will hint that from what I've seen so far it seems all but. Maybe I just miss the machine-gun fast word plays that we've been spoiled with by previous Mraz records, or maybe it's just that live guitar-only versions really are just mere specters. Maybe falling in love really does ruin Hall of Fame songwriters by causing them to lose focus or worse (never blame the man). Whatever the case, this writer was intrigued at first but quickly underwhelmed.

Case in point: the first single from Love Is a Four Letter Word - the new Jason Mraz album - was I Won't Give Up. It quickly shot to 8th place in Billboard's Hot 100 - probably mostly from sheer morbid curiosity - and then plummeted just as quickly. Now it is nowhere to be found on any chart. For Mraz's sake, I hope this is not an ominous portend of the performance of the whole album, but I fear it just might be.

Martha Marcy May Marlene and Me

Things that made me laugh about Martha Marcy May Marlene:

The big, old, decaying house
The endless cleaning
"Soon the government will collapse and people will go back to living on farms like this."
The dirty kids running around
The terrible musicians and songs ('Marcy's Song' excluded)
"He's right, I don't know why I'm so weak."
Always looking forward to financial stability "just around the corner"
Naivety about football, professional sports, and television in general
And niche hobbies and modern nutritional fads
And everything
"I don't know, it's a big bed -- you guys were on the other side."
HOW DID THEY GET SO MANY HOT NEW DISCIPLES WHAT THE HELL!
Official 'meal times'
"Your body doesn't need that much food, you'll get used to it."
Child care
Calling parents to ask for money
"You have so much potential."
"Morally superior moochers who live off and lecture you while insisting that you can't measure success by money and possessions"
The whiteboard by the phone and the phone protocol written on it
"You're a teacher and a leader."


While the 'cult' obviously had issues, the 'normal' sister and her husband weren't completely beautiful people either. Did they have to have such sticks up their asses about every little thing? Of course, I'm no one to judge. I've never had anything up my ass, and maybe the way they act is just normal, modern human behavior. Still, I wish people wouldn't have such a snobby attitude toward, for one, the natural, naked state of the human figure.

Some of the 'cult's' behavior was a bit improbable too. Although I have definitely seen how the ritualization of violation can definitely make some very wrong things sacred, I think the commonplace breaking-and-entering and the casual murdering was a bit far-fetched even for weird cults.

As far as the rape-cleansing ritual, I think the script's writer was trying to explain to himself through drastic measures how it is possible for people to be convinced to live alternative lifestyles. Maybe he doesn't realize or couldn't understand that you don't need to be 'raped' into an alternative lifestyle -- it is possible to just be seduced. Sometimes mainstream and society just isn't for you. Many people, of their own volition, live outside the norm, both idealistically and even sexually. Sometimes it even becomes a new norm, like monogamy once did. I don't think rape and roofies are necessary for a person to decide that the way many other people are doing things just isn't for her.

Florence + the Cliches

Here is a list of cliches used unimaginatively in the latest epic ballad "Shake It Out" from the usually cunning Florence + the Machine. Shame on you, Florence. Shame on you, Machine.

It's always darkest before the dawn (4X)
Leave the past behind
Bury a dead horse
It's hard to dance with the devil on your back (4x)
Given half the chance
Damned if I do, damned if I don't
The end of the road
A shot in the dark


Here is a list of cliches used imaginatively in the same song:

Every demon wants his pound of flesh.


Verdict: guilty of doing a half-assed job on the lyrics. Great music, great presence, and steller melody, though.

Hot Chelle Rae - Tonight, Tonight

Listen to the video then check out my commentary.




Don't think you can ever outgrow punk music. It's older than you.

The happy-go-lucky emo is the new great trend in rebellious young music. When denial turns to optimism, which turns to could-carelessness, you have a feeling on your hands that is quite hard to describe (and they wonder why we use 'whatever'). Still, make no mistake: partying on the rooftop, top of the world remains one of the best solutions.

Oh, also, I don't know when it became cool to name-drop a chubby, bearded guy into your song but I definitely approve. And kudos to Mr. Galifianakis for having somehow embedded himself firmly into modern pop culture (if not quite yet modern spell checkers).

If words like heartcry and youth were still in my vocabulary I might use them here. I might also use buoyant. But 'don't know if I'll make it, but watch how good I'll fake it' pretty much sums it up how everyone in the entire world feels whether they admit it or not, so don't think you're so special. We live in a teeming anthill of egocentric, pity-absorbed worker bees with game faces on, so you can cry on my shoulder for a bit if I can cry on yours. But then you'll have to go back to faking it because that's how things work.

Oh well.

Did You Know That...

...whenever I am trying to put a label on a post, I have to cycle through all the letters of the alphabet to see which labels I already have, and which one(s) fit the post best? Because I don't have the faintest idea what my labels say, and I don't wanna create a whole new one for each post! Now THAT would be terrible! (FOR EXAMPLE: the post where i go on and on about how i choose labels for my posts) (OR: i still can't get over how cool this label thing is)
So here I go, Q, W, E, R.......

Love, Joe.



PS UPDATE
HEY. FDTP ROCKS. INTERNET IS SO CARNAL HERE. NOT TO MENTION FAR (the article above is a draft that I wrote before I left...hehe). AM LEARNING A LOT. 13 HOUR SHIFTS WILL DO THAT TO YOU. AM ALSO ENJOYING A LOT.
ONE THING I DON´T HAVE TIME TO DO IS GO THROUGH ALL THE RECENT COMMENTS AND EDIT THEM. I WILL AS SOON AS POSSIBLE BUT FOR NOW, IF THERE IS ANYTHING UNEDIFYING, FORGIVE ME, FORGIVE THEM, LOOK AWAY. AND TO YOU PEOPLE WHO ARE DOING THE WHOLE STAR WARS THING BELOW, ENOUGH OKAY. THANKS!

160 Words About Heavenly Music

McNair's second album release, Heavenly Music, hits hard and pounding, and leaves a ringing in your ears, but a smile on your face. Waxing more chaotic than his first more melodic release--Recycled--McNair’s lyrics still you leave you proud to be a disciple, growing up with nothing to lose, ready to enjoy yourself despite the high stakes created by the temptation of fools on the other side... and craving some Word time.
While “STEM” borrows heavily from his often conflicting influences, resulting in a wide variety of styles, he masterfully manages to refrain from sounding tacky--and there is nothing less than pure meat inbetween the lines. There is still lots of pure McNair in there as well though, including 31 pick scratches, 9 “let’s go”’s, and yes, the mariachi punk takeoff that you’ve all been waiting for. Get ready to scream your lungs out in the shower--this album doesn’t just taste good, it’s good for you, too.

Love, Joe.