Now 46, multiple Grammy winner Jason Mraz was born in 1977 — the same year Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Jerry Lee Lewis, then 42, released his melancholic country-music single “Middle Age Crazy.”

Almost no one listening to Mraz’s often buoyant new album, “Mystical Magical Rhythmical Radical Ride,” will be reminded of Lewis belting out such high-octane 1950s rock classics as “Great Balls of Fire” and “High School Confidential.” But there are clear thematic similarities between some of Mraz’s musically upbeat record and the downbeat “Middle Age Crazy,” on which the late Lewis reflected: “And today he’s 40 years old, going on 20/ Don’t look for the gray in his hair/ ‘Cause he ain’t got any.”

“I thought I’d be done at 40,” said Mraz, who — six years later — has responded to middle-age with a surprise left turn.

Half the songs on the recently released “Mystical Magical Rhythmical Radical Ride” embrace dance-pop and vintage disco. They were inspired, in part, by such Mraz favorites as Chic, Michael Jackson, Donna Summer, the Bee Gees and Jamiroquai.

“When I was a little kid, I saw being in your 40s as old age,” Mraz recalled. “As a teen, my 20s were something to aspire to — 40 always seemed just out of reach. I thought I’d be done (with music) by then, and the ideal life would be a family, kids and moving on.

“When you turn 40, it’s exciting. I celebrated my 40th birthday performing at the Hollywood Bowl. But when you turn 42, nobody cares.”

Mraz muses about having turned 42 in the lyrics to “Little Time,” a lilting ballad from his new album. In the same song, he also ponders what might happen “if I reach 65.”

Such pulsating, four-on- the-floor new songs as “Getting Started,” “I Feel Like Dancing” and “Feel Good Too” sound like energetic odes to dancing the night away with youthful joy, if not outright abandon.

Or, as this usually sunny troubadour put it in a statement when “I Feel Like Dancing” was released as the album’s first single in February: “Songs appear out of a real necessity, and this song appeared as I struggled with identity and self-worth in my mid-40s.”

Mraz paused for thought when asked if has undergone a midlife crisis.

“I don’t think I’ve had a midlife crisis just yet,” he replied. “But maybe I have — and I haven’t lived long enough past it to see that: ‘Oh, yeah, that was definitely a midlife crisis.’

Middle age is not the only factor that inspired Mraz to write and record new songs specifically designed to encourage him — and his listeners — to party down and shake their collective booty.

The singer-songwriter also credits his mother, June Tomes, for encouraging him to make an overtly pop-oriented album. Mraz wasn’t getting any younger, she noted, so he should do a pop album “before it’s too late.” He concurred.

Mraz stressed in a recent interview that he specifically sought to make a pop album that embraced old-school music values.

“I always really wanted to make a dance-pop album, but not an electronic (dance) album that leaned on computer programs and drum machines,” he said.

“I wanted to make human dance music. So, sonically, that’s what our effort was. And thematically, I noticed that what was missing from my shows — year after year — was that I didn’t have enough up-tempo songs that could turn the show into a dance party for my audience and myself.”

For at least half the selections on “Mystical Magical Rhythmical Radical Ride” — whose title comes from the lyrics to the song “Disco Sun” — Mraz takes a deep dive into the music of the 1970s and early 1980s. To cite one case in point, the slinky grooves, sleek instrumental work and deftly executed higher-register lead vocals on “Feel Like Dancing” evoke the music of Boz Scaggs and Michael Jackson.

Nine of the 10 songs on “Mystical Magical Rhythmical Radical Ride” were co-written by Raining Jane, the four-woman Los Angeles band Mraz first collaborated with in 2007.

“There was a concerted effort to make this in tandem,” he said. “And I love giving Raining Jane credit, because they were in the studio with me, they were part of the writing process, and they will be on my summer tour.”

Mraz’s new album reunites him with Sweden’s Martin Terefe, whose recording production credits range from Train and Mary J. Blige to Yungblud and Coldplay. Terefe produced Mraz’s 2008 album, “We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things.” It includes two of Mraz’s biggest hits — “I’m Yours” and “Lucky,” which features Colbie Caillat — and remains his biggest selling release.

Mraz has made five albums since then — including 2020’s reggae- inspired “Look for the Good” — and his sensitive singer-songwriter persona has remained intact. The new album’s well- balanced mix of thumping, unabashed dance-pop songs and earnest ballads could be just the right combination to propel him back to the upper reaches of the national sales charts.

The fact that he has released three albums since turning 40 suggests Mraz’s career should extend beyond middle age. He will be on tour for much of the summer with the group Mraz bills as his Superband.

“I was really surprised to get to my 40s and still be generating songs and ideas, and to be diving deeper. I kind of woke up one day and realized this is what my life would be,” he said.

“I had the pleasure of sitting with Willie Nelson four or five years ago — when he was 85 — in Maui. It was just the two of us, and all he wanted to do was play demos for me! He was like: ‘Hey, want to hear a new song I wrote?’ He played one CD after another of his new songs for me, and he was 85 or 86 at the time! He’s 90 now, still recording and touring.

“It occurred to me at that point, sitting with Willie: ‘Why would we stop doing what we love doing? Why would we ever consider retirement, or think our ideas would dry up?’

“That was really inspiring. It made me realize that I’ll probably do this my whole life. The playing field may change — musical trends, who my colleagues are, or what the perceptions of me are — all those things will be in flux.

“But I can rest assured knowing I’ll wake up every day with interesting new music ideas, or a new idea accident that will happen on my instrument that will lead to new song. Every heartache will lead to a new song, every celebration will lead to a new song.”