Jason Mraz is–at long last–ramping up anticipation to his long awaited fourth studio album title still TBA. The followup to September’s “The World As I See It” is a lullaby with the theme of love called “I Won’t Give Up.” According to Atlantic Records this song is the lead single off Mraz’s upcoming album so it should give fans a hint as what’s to come when all the tracks release May 8. The mellow love song is acoustic in nature and does not feature Mraz’s signature horns that were so prominent on his last effort We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things. The chorus goes like this: “I won’t give up on us, even if the skies get rough. I’m giving you all my love. I’m still looking up.” His voice remains angelesque.
In an interview with Billboard, he shared some insight into the making of the new album and how it will differ from his previous ones. “This new album has less horns, it’s got more piano and guitar textures. A lot more vocal landscapes,” he says. “That, to me, has always been my favorite part of making music; the singing and what voices can do and the voices singing in harmony. It’s not a departure in the sound of the genre in any way, it’s just different tones, different textures. Musically, I think people are going to like it. It’s personal. It’s melodic. And it’s mellow. There’s a couple of up-tempo tunes, but mostly the rhythm of the heartbeat kind of takes precedence on this record. Medium-tempo tunes; which I love. It feels more like the pace of life. At least, based on my life and what I’ve been doing.”
He also has plans to change up the way he performs when he’s on tour. “I’m actually hoping in the future to try to pull off the record with a smaller band, but with more singers. The real basics: drums, keys, guitar, bass. But have everyone be a singer. I think our audiences, our listeners, have been mostly attracted to that throughout the years. They come and they sing. Most of our audience sings along.”
Watch the lyric video for “I Won’t Give Up” that’s embedded above and download the song at iTunes. You can expect a traditional music video for the track to release next month, around the same time the song hits the radio. Also, according to various sources Mraz is fine tuning an “electric” full-band version of “I Won’t Give Up” and it may land a spot on the album (perhaps as a bonus track). To reiterate, May 8 is the day it comes out, so mark your calendar!