Jason Mraz / Know
Looking back at The Remedy, one of Jason Mraz's hit singles off of his 2002's debut album Waiting for My Rocket to Come, and it's clear from the offset that he belongs to the glass-half-full camp. "I say the tragedy is how you're gonna spend/ The rest of your nights with the light on/ So shine the light on all of your friends/ When it all amounts to nothing in the end/ I, I won't worry my life away, hey", he sings with a joyful abandon - a character trait that continues to define and dominate his subsequent releases from 2005's Mr A–Z to 2014's Yes!
Mraz's proclivity for feel-good positivity is, indeed, infectious. His brand of good-vibes-guy has reached its peak with I'm Yours, a cut from his third LP We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things. At one point, it was practically impossible to go to a café, a restaurant or a bar in Thailand without hearing the song -- original and/or some other variants of covers. Lucky, another track from the same album, has also become a popular wedding soundtrack alongside perennial local classics like Groove Riders' Yood and Ratklao Amaradit's Lom Hai Jai.
His latest studio outing, Know, finds the singer-songwriter re-connecting with indie-rock quartet, Raining Jane, and offering somewhat more of the same. Billed "a collection of love letters," the album does precisely what it says on the tin with 10 wide-eyed love songs sharing the same lovey-dovey sentiment.
Already the acoustic ballad opener, Let's See What The Night Can Do, positions itself as a new contender for a first dance song ("I wanna get lost with you/ And hideout out under the light of the moon/ I wanna get lost with you/ And see what it's like to spend the whole night With you, just you"). In fact, the same could also be said for the majority of the songs on offer here -- Meghan Trainor-featured More Than Friends, Unlonely, Better With You, No Plans, Sleeping To Dream, and Might As Well Dance.
But when he's not busy singing about getting lost in his partner's eyes and eternal devotion, he does serve up some memorable gems including Have It All, "a blessing disguised as a rap song" inspired by his meeting with a monk in Myanmar ("May you have auspiciousness and causes of success… May you take no effort in your being generous Sharing what you can, nothing more nothing less"). The record then concludes with Love Is Still The Answer, a message of love conquers all tinged with existentialism ("The question is why, why are we here? There's only one answer that matters/ Even if your heart has been shattered/ Whatever you want, whatever you are after/ Love is still the answer").
All in all, Know is a classic Jason Mraz album teeming with unabashed affection and unstoppable zest for life. While it can feel very much Eat Pray Love at times, its message of love, compassion and positivity is definitely a morale boost we all can appreciate in these trying times.
THE PLAYLIST
Geumdageum / Maew
We love it when artists come up with a name for their own sound just so we don't have to. Bringing us "street alternative," homegrown indie six-piece Geumdageum draw their inspiration from pleng puea chiwit (literally "songs for life"), a sub-genre of Thai folk music championing the working-class, while putting an indie-rock spin on it – think something along the lines of YENA. Maew [Cat], lifted from their debut album Sib Baht, sounds as if it was made in the '60s, with trumpet and double bass giving off that old-timey feel and the lyrics comparing cats' aloofness to women's indifference.
Zayn (Feat. Timbaland) / Too Much
Starting with last year's Sia collab Dusk Till Dawn, the build-up for Zayn's sophomore outing has been slow-going, but steady. On the forthcoming record's fifth cut Too Much, the former One Direction star links up with producer Timbaland, channelling the sexually charged vibes of avant-R&B crooner The Weeknd. "I guess I want too much/ I just want love and lust," he intones in a soaring falsetto, all hot and bothered like. "You just can't love enough/ That's why I need a touch."
Phosphorescent / New Birth in New England
Every week there's at least one song that stands out from the rest of the playlist. This week's honour goes to Phosphorescent's New Birth in England, the lead cut taken from his forthcoming seventh LP, C'est La Vie. Here, the Nashville-based singer-songwriter Matthew Houck showcases his songwriting chops by offering a vignette of two people conversing in a bar: "I said, 'Hey, I like it how you play the piano'/ She just said, 'Honey, what are you doing here?'/ I said, 'Well, I'm sitting in a bar in New England/ I was thinking about another beer.'" Add to that uplifting backing choirs and you have a delightful gem you'll be humming for the rest of the week.
Robyn / Missing U
Sweden's pop powerhouse Robyn returns with her first new solo material since 2012's Body Talk and, predictably, it's one for the dancefloor. Like some of her best singles including modern classic Dancing On My Own, Missing U finds her transforming melancholy into a physical release. "There's this empty space you left behind/ Now you're not here with me/ I keep digging through our waste of time… But the picture's incomplete/ 'Cause I'm missing you," she sings over scintillating synths and the iconic four-to-the-four beat.
Wild Nothing / Partners in Motion
Take a few seconds and think of all the tropes of '80s music. Now, whatever you've had in mind will most likely be on Wild Nothing's latest track, Partners in Motion. The third taste of Wild Nothing's fourth studio album Indigo, the song oozes retro sonic aesthetics of the said era – shimmering synths, saxophone solo, and goosebumps-inducing modulations. The lyrics, too, are cryptic at its best ("Now I'm obsessive, walking through keyholes/ Fixing picture prints, letting the soil drain/ I had a temper, but now I'm delicate/ I keep it to myself, I keep it to myself").
