Yes!

Audio Mixers: Jason Mraz; Mike Mogis.
Recording information: ARC Studios, Omaha, NE; The Om Studio, San Diego, CA; White Star Sound, Louisa, VA.
The exclamation point that punctuates its title suggests Jason Mraz may be a little enthusiastic on Yes! but that's a feint, hiding how this 2014 record is the next logical step on the singer/songwriter's road of seduction. Gone is the celebrated wordplay, a self-conscious maturation that was perhaps inevitable, but also absent are the smooth soul flourishes of 2012's Love Is a Four Letter Word. Those slow grooves underscored how Mraz embraced his role as a middlebrow make-out king in the wake of the success of "I'm Yours," but Yes! feels like a truer follow-up to that 2009 hit than the 2012 LP because it emphasizes Jason Mraz the sensitive singer/songwriter with an acoustic guitar slung across his shoulders. He flirts with rhythms floating up from the Caribbean, he covers Boyz II Men's "It's So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday," he cops a bit of the Lumineers' big-beat folk stomp, and he strums a ukulele -- but these are all mild, complementary accents to a sun-kissed collection of romantic songs. Mraz doesn't avoid amorous clichés so much as he shamelessly embraces each and every one, addressing songs to a lover who is also his best friend and a "beautiful thing," celebrating long drives and quiet times with the one he loves. Such subjects are a clear indication that Yes! is not a record fueled by the heady rush of love at first sight; it's an album designed to soundtrack a long getaway weekend for a couple already in love. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine