Three weeks ago, we reviewed Jason Mraz’s new album, Love Is a Four Letter Word. And apart from a couple of passing allusions to cohabitation, it was a sweet album full of earnest, optimistic reflections about life and love. So much so, in fact, that I wrote in the conclusion of our review, “Jason Mraz’s unironic, unapologetic embrace of life’s inherent goodness is a breath of fresh air.”
Then something decidedly less “sweet” and “fresh” appeared on the horizon: An alert reader tipped us off to the fact that the deluxe version of the album included a song that was much, much nastier than anything else on the regular version of the album.
I’ll say more about that in a moment. But first, let me talk about our approach to reviewing albums.
Typically, we don’t review alternate or deluxe versions of albums for several different reasons. First, some data has suggested that the majority of music consumers buy the standard version of an album. So we review the one that most people are listening to.
Second, in these days of artists constantly looking for a marketing edge, there may be multiple, exclusive versions of an album available for purchase. It’s not uncommon for musicians to release a standard version, a deluxe version, a version with tracks that are exclusive to a particular retailer (iTunes, Target, Best Buy, Walmart, etc.) and even different versions overseas. We don’t have the resources, time-wise, to track down every possible derivation, thus we focus on standard-edition songs that are generally the common denominator between all those different iterations. (Nor do we, by the way, review unrated versions of movies when they come out on DVD.)
Third, generally speaking, the three or four bonus songs on a deluxe or exclusive version tend not to deviate radically—in positive or negative ways—from the balance of the content on the standard version. In other words, those additional songs typically would not sway our review decisively one way or another.
Every now and then, however, there’s an exception to all those rules. And Jason Mraz’s album proved to be exactly that—including a song on the deluxe edition with content in marked contrast to the mostly upbeat, positive tone of the standard edition.
Specifically, I’m talking about the inclusion of a live version of his song “You Fckn Did It,” which includes about a dozen f-words. That content was so jarringly out of step with the generally positive tenor of our review that we felt it important to go back to and amend our take with information about that bonus track’s harsh profanity. We wanted to let you know that we’d made those changes, in case you checked out our review before we made those amendments.
We look forward to continuing to provide you with thorough, accurate and insightful analysis when it comes to today’s popular music. And we’re committed to updating our reviews when it comes to our attention that we’ve missed anything that might make or break your music-buying or music-listening decisions.
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