Jason Mraz has it made

I am not a big fan of reissues. You know how the practice goes. Artist with one or two big hits is booked for a concert or celebrating some event. Record label gets the hit CD, adds one or two new cuts, makes some changes in the packaging and then sells the album as the new, repackaged edition. And gullible fans forget that save for the new songs, they already have the CD, and have no need for another copy. They might have need for one in 10 or 20 years and then and only then are reissues enriched by the passage of time, are truly justified.

You cannot really blame labels or artists who do this. Times are hard and such gimmicks to help sales a lot. But there are exceptions to everything and I am happy to have found one. I must admit that because it is a reissue of an album released only in mid-2008, this languished in my bin for months. Why reissue something that is only a few months old and while the original is still selling. Well, it turned out both the artist and the label had very good reasons that I was only too happy to find out. So here it is, the Expanded, Limited Edition version of We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things by the very talented Jason Mraz.

Maybe because the original CD has those three sentences as its enigmatic title, the reissue became an impressive three-disc set. The first one is the entire We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things album with the songs, Lucky featuring Colbie Caillat, Butterfly, Live High, Love for a Child, Details in the Fabric featuring James Morrison, Coyotes, Only Human, The Dynamo of Volition, If It Kills Me, A Beautiful Mess, the big hit Make It Mine and the Grammy nominated monster seller all over the world, I’m Yours.

Disc two is presented as a compilation of some EPs, but it really contains more than that. The tracks do come from several EPs but they are also acoustic versions of Jason’s hits and are very different from the originals. He sounds great in the quiet setting and now devoid of the pop-rock trimmings, those same songs come across as sweeter and more meaningful. I’m Yours, which now has a breezy Jack Johnson quality to it, leads the pack.

The others included are If It Kills Me, Make It Mine, Butterfly, Only Human and Love for a Child all from the Casa Nova Sessions, Live High from An Avocado Salad Session, A Beautiful Mess from a Raining Jane Session, The Dynamo of Volition from An All Night Session, Coyotes from A Girl in New York Sessions, Man Gave Names to All the Animals from the Gospel Collection Sessions and a medley of Mudhouse and Gypsy Me Live from sessions in Amsterdam.

But the real reason why this collection is a keeper is Disc three. It is the DVD which is made available here for the first time. It contains a full band concert of songs from the CD plus Mraz’s early hits like Geek in the Pink, The Remedy (I Won’t Worry), No Stopping Us, 1000 Things and others. He is an engaging performer, funny and sensitive with an impressive vocal range. Given his simple whimsical compositions, it was at first difficult to imagine Mraz as having complete command of a stage. But here he is and he is simply wonderful to watch.

That is not all there is to enjoy about the album. A lot of thought also went into the packaging. Doodles, also by Mraz make up the cover. The song lyrics and the credits come in a booklet where all the text have been carefully handwritten. You might need better eyesight to be able to read everything but it is a joy to see that here is an artist who cares a lot about his fans and is willing to go the extra mile to present them with something truly special.

We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things. is Mraz’s third album. Released earlier were Waiting for My Rocket to Come and Mr. A-Z. Unlike most pop stars, he allows fans to tape his live performances.