John Mayer Still Feel Like Your Man Review
Artist: John Mayer
Album: The Search for Everything
Year: 2017
Grade: C
In Brief: This album seems like an amalgamation of all of Mayer's previous sounds and styles. Information technology's a smidge more interesting to heed to than the pair of folk albums he released during his "rural isolation" catamenia, and far less infuriating thanBattle Studies, but I gotta be honest, I still prefer his first three albums, and that's not probable to change any time soon.
Isn't it kind of messed up that I consider a thoroughly boilerplate, heart-of-the-roadJohn Mayer album to be an improvement over his last several records? I suppose that just goes to show how far my expectations of the human being had fallen after the abysmal trilogy comprised of 2009'southwardBattle Studies, 2012'southBorn and Raised, and 2013'sParadise Valley. I'll acknowledge that I first got into Mayer's music when he was right on the cusp of fame, and notwithstanding wrote nearly life, love and the occasional quarter-life crunch from a reasonably modest perspective on his mainstream debut, Room for Squares. That made it a scrap harder to assimilate the modify in sound when John went for more electrical, dejection-influenced pop onHeavier Things andContinuum, but I still constitute a lot to savour almost those records. Then his ego and a handful of scandals started to get the best of him, and by the timeBattle Studies rolled effectually, I simply couldn't chronicle to Mayer any more than. I commented at the time that I was trying my best to separate the man's personal life and public image from his songwriting, just even taking what he was writing about in a vacuum, the guy just seemed exceedingly total of himself. I suppose the retreat from public life and the time he took to heal from damaged vocal chords after he moved to rural Montana may have washed him some good, and I was excited at the idea of him returning to a more acoustic, folksy sound. Simply the two albums resulting from that phase of his life were largely and then dull that I didn't even carp to review them. I figured my days every bit a John Mayer fan were most definitely in the past.
My impression up until now has been that I'm the political party pooper, the dreaded fan of a musician who'south been effectually for a long time who simply wants him to audio similar "the old days" and who can't accept change. I figure the general public more or less ate up whatsoever singles he released and all the same bought his records to the point where those quondam albums had become obscured by the exposure his newer ones have gotten. I didn't know until looking at the sales figures recently that he'd been on a steady refuse ever sinceRoom for Squares. At present you can blame some of that on the changing climate of the music industry and the often cited fact that "nobody" buys music whatsoever more. But wow, the drop-off over the years has been staggering. Possibly the human being yet has legions of fans who get to his live shows? I don't know. He must accept figured something was off and he needed to recalibrate things a chip in order to reconnect with fans he'd lost over the years, because here and now in 2017, he's released an album calledThe Search for Everything that seems to be an attempt to recapture pretty much every sound he's attempted over the course of his career.
To say that I showtime listened to this record with some trepidation would be an understatement. Iii bad albums in a row is normally the betoken where I cease bothering to listen to new material at all from an artist, but it's kind of similar an abusive relationship with this guy; he keeps promising he's a changed man and I proceed buying it. And this fourth dimension I around, I can actually believe to some degree that he'south worked through some of his bug and is coming at his songwriting from a wiser perspective. At that place are definitely a few songs on this record that torpedo my overall favorable impression from the get-become, only for the about part, I feel similar I'm starting to relate to Mayer again on this record. The title certainly may be dubious – The Search for Everything sets the listener to look some sort of grandiose rumination on the nature of beingness itself and the spectrum of man experience, when in reality the lion's share of the songs cover the usual subject matter of hookups and breakups and makeups. One or 2 might actually surprise me by showing a little more depth. But for the nearly part, the title is presumptuous – it's probably the most misleading name he's slapped on an album sinceHeavier Things.
Musically, while I'thou excited to hear the acoustic and electric guitars sharing infinite a footling bit more on this tape, I still maintain that Mayer'south reputation far outstrips his actual performance, as well-nigh of these songs, even when they're more poppy and/or riff-heavy, seem to exist on the more simplistic side in terms of the instrumental prowess required to perform them. I could becompletelywrong on that, since information technology's non similar I've ever spent fourth dimension within a recording studio. Merely the fact remains that I'm non hearing much that wows me here. I've heard the occasional standout guitar solo, or unexpected chord sequence on the audio-visual that makes me drool, on past Mayer records, and so I know what the man is capable of. He occasionally accomplishes something resembling that here. And it's to this album'southward credit that each song is singled-out enough in its audio that, while I may become them dislocated with tracks from his previous albums, I don't become any of them dislocated with each other. I'd imagine several of these songs will do a serviceable job at radio, while some of the more than subdued but pretty ones volition be remembered by fans every bit worthwhile deep cuts. I don't come across anything here becoming as iconic as any of Mayer's early hits, but so my listening habits aren't exactly on the cut edge of the mainstream, so I'one thousand probably not the best guess of such things anyway. For the most office,The Search for Everything is a pleasant listen that dials dorsum the dullness and douchebaggery of his terminal few records plenty for me to notice it tolerable. I just can't bring myself to say much of annihilation significantly more positive about it than that, merely coming from me, fifty-fifty saying it's average is kind of high praise at this bespeak.
INDIVIDUAL TRACKS:
ane. Still Feel Like Your Man
I'll consider the first track on this tape an achievement, if for no other reason than that it has a premise which makes me want to hate it right away, and however it manages to make me kind of like it. The laid back R&B groove helps hither – John's playing information technology cool on the guitar, but it actually sort of makes sense to do so, and the brisk pace of the song makes it feel like more of a lighthearted confession than an unhealthy obsession. See, John'south having a difficult fourth dimension getting over an ex-lover. That in and of itself is nothing new for him, just since he tends to date high contour starlets, we all know this is well-nighKaty Perry, and he'southward said then on the record. His clarification of how he keeps her stuff around his apartment, just in case she e'er decides to drop by and relive old times, is almost pathetic, but and so I think dorsum to "City Honey" onRoom for Squares and I realize that a daughter keeping her stuff at his place has always been a very symbolic affair for John. I can't say I understand his taste in women, but I approximate I'll requite him that one. Some listeners have taken issue with the first verse of the song, where "the prettiest daughter in the room" seems to be making a move on him, and it kind of sounds like a brag. But it's interesting to me that he doesn't become for the like shooting fish in a barrel rebound with her. He seems most bewildered that someone he considers that attractive is even interested when he's in such a wrecked emotional state. Maybe information technology's still a scrap big-headed to hint that hecould have slept with the woman who is way out of everyone else'south league, simply he didn't, but I take the fact that he passed on the opportunity as a sign that he recognizes he needs time for the healing procedure to complete. Still a bit of an awkward vocal, but I didn't end up hating it, which ways this album'south off to a comparatively amazing start.
Grade: B-
2. Emoji of a Wave
This vocal has atitle that makes me want to hate it right away. I mean, on the calibration of Gimmicky Song Titles, that's only a notch below your boilerplateFall Out Boy song. Thankfully, at that place's zero in the lyrics that will make this song seem terribly dated in just a decade or ii, when we've stumbled across some other fad to communicate in as few taps as possible how we're feeling, since emojis are never mentioned here… just actual emotions. You could heed to this 1 and easily presume it's chosen "Just a Wave". Which would accept been a more than accurate, albeit less attention-grabbing title. Enough almost the damn vocal championship. I actually really like this song. I don't quitelove it, because while the rich, finger-picked acoustic melody gets me going similar zip on his by 2 records did, nothing about it seems quite every bit climactic as the overwhelming waves of emotion described in John's lyrics. It's a reasonably good portrait of how the process of getting over someone can sometimes cripple you with a sudden onslaught of fearfulness and sadness and self-doubt. I'one thousand not going to say it's super insightful – virtually the simply communication he has to give himself here is "Just hold on". But information technology communicates the feeling reasonably well. I enjoy it more than than I've enjoyed whatsoever John Mayer song in the last ten years. That'southward actually saying something.
Grade: B+
3. Helpless
This holdover from theBorn and Raised sessions definitely doesn't sound similar it would have fit on that album at all. It's a more bouncy, electrical guitar-driven, anthem about being too brazenly stupid to even realize when you need assistance. Presumably as the result of a lot of drinking, as mentioned in the first verse, simply the lyrics don't give a lot of specifics across that. The lyrics are maddeningly repetitive, really, which quite nearly squanders an otherwise tricky chorus by repeating the line "If I'm helpless, tell me now, tell me now" three times in succession. He could have filled that in with some more details that just happened to rhyme, and the vocal would take been no worse for the wear. But what practise I know? Listeners care more than near songs they tin can easily remember and sing along to than songs that actually make some sort of a point, I gauge. As much every bit I rag on John for not doing enough interesting things with his guitar on his studio albums to warrant his reputation every bit a killer axe-man, I have to admit that I'm really satisfied with his soloing here. Information technology'due south pretty much what saves the vocal, one time the stabby riff and boisterous backbeat that initially get my attention have demonstrated that they're not really headed anywhere more interesting than where they started off.
Grade: B-
4. Love on the Weekend
So far on this record, I've been far more interested in the music than the lyrics. This song flips that equation on its head, because musically, it'due south almost as middle-of-the-road adult contemporary as it can exist – predictably safe for any kinds of radio stations aren't playing the hotter side of modern pop music, I estimate. People take compared it to aRoom for Squares ballad, and… no. I'g not buying it. Certain, the lyrics are as wide-eyed and innocent every bit anything on that record, which is the only real draw here, but musically, it's based around keyboards and electrical guitar doing nothing all that special to a laid-back beat out. Apathetic. I really wanted to hate this i, too, from what I initially thought it was about – some sort of a short-term fling that just lasted for a weekend. Turns out I was wrong about that, and a few more listens made it clear that I hadn't been paying attending. He'due south in dear with someone he can just see on the weekends, presumably due to either long distance or a punishing work schedule that makes weeknight get-togethers impractical. So they jet off somewhere on a Friday, cram in every bit many activities and love-making sessions as they presumably can, and so get through the inevitable emotional crash-and-fire every Sunday when they have to say goodbye. The thing is, John does a legitimately good task at capturing that feeling of simultaneously being on top of the world and dreading the separation. "I hate your guts, merely I'chiliad lovin' every minute of it" is the kind of line that would brand me encounter John equally a total jerkass if he'd written information technology in theBattle Studies era, but here it merely makes perfect sense. He doesn't actually hate her; he's simply playfully describing the heartache they brand each other feel every time they have to go their carve up ways. I figure this will probably exist relatable to folks who have attempted long-distance relationships. Seeing each other every weekend would take been a luxury back when my now-wife and I were doing that… but that'southward some other story. The indicate is – good storytelling here, so-and then music.
Form: B
five. In the Blood
Wow, John. Only, WOW. I really didn't see this one coming, and I mean that in the best way possible. Think "Stop This Railroad train"? That's the last time upwardly until at present that a John Mayer song has packed such an emotional gut-dial for me. Here he finally zooms out from his usual relationship fare and comes upwardly with something that might ameliorate fit the purported theme of "everything", due to the big questions information technology asks almost whether who we are is foretold in our DNA, or whether nosotros have the ability to choose. He begins the song by asking himself how much of his female parent (and then later his begetter) is left in him, noting examples of emotional or mental struggles they apparently never quite got over and wondering if he'south headed down that same route merely past virtue of being their son. "Will information technology wash out in the h2o, or is information technology always in the blood?" he asks, which puts a clever spin on the onetime aphorism that blood (meaning family) is thicker than water (significant everyone and everything else, I guess). He does tie this back into relationships when he hints at existence just like his father, giving upwards way too much of himself to a woman too shortly, and getting jealous when she doesn't go all in as quickly, might exist what's running his diverse romances direct into the ditch. What's interesting hither is how my parents might have behaved completely different from John'due south parents, nevertheless his specificity about their failings doesn't ruin the universality of the song. I've asked myself very similar questions about how much I'thou going to plow out like my mother (which in my case would be a positive consequence) or like my male parent (definitely a negative ane) and what I have to do to fight the negative patterns I've observed within my own family tree. So John scores high marks for writing about this eloquently and all the same succinctly. Where he doesn't score such his marks is for the music. I mean, the tedious groove and acoustic strum accompanied by handclaps here is OK, I gauge… it has a slight folk/country experience to it, but it'southward very workmanlike. Nobody in this ensemble seems peculiarly passionate almost the part they've been given to play. So if for some reason you managed to melody the lyrics out, this vocal would probably turn out to be ane of the anthology's least impressive. "Stop This Railroad train" was similarly mellow, simply it had a potent audio-visual melody leading the mode and the instrumentation had a bit more than complexity to information technology. So that one's still the gilt standard for emotional John Mayer songs well-nigh his family, but this certainly i gets some solid points for trying.
Course: B+
six. Changing
By John Mayer'due south own admission, the chorus of this song felt like a 30-second jingle when he first came upward with it, and he had to figure out how to build a song around it. Given that, it's probably not much of a surprise that I hands go tired of how the melody circles back on itself hither; combined with the all-too-obvious observation that John, similar any other homo being, is always changing, it feels similar this rail winds upwardly at the onetime Department of Back-up Department in tape time. He has to keep going back to that word "irresolute" as he makes his inane observations, and when y'all contrast this with "In the Blood", I recall it illustrates the deviation between the good and bad kinds of "universal" songwriting – at that place's the kind that says stuff nosotros can all chronicle to, but in a way that perhaps we hadn't thought about it before, and then there's the kind that says stuff nosotros all knew nearly ourselves and that doesn't add together anything insightful to the conversation. So the lyricsand the tune are total launder here… what'southward left? A pretty decent guitar solo in the middle eight. I wish it had been part of a completely different song, but at least it offers some respite from the monotony.
Form: C-
7. Theme From 'The Search for Everything'
This instrumental interlude seems to wish that it had a movie during which it could play over the opening credits, given the championship. I hateful, was it non enough to just let this one be the championship track? What exactly is it the theme from? I don't hear musical references to information technology anywhere else on the album. Nomenclature-related nitpicks aside, I do relish the laid-dorsum audio-visual feel of this one. It's every bit mild-mannered and modestly folksy as anything from Mayer'south "rural isolation" albums, and it's got that whole "bankroll music that plays on the hotel TV guide aqueduct while a slideshow of pretty local scenery plays in the top half of the screen" vibe to it. So, null terribly exciting. And at less than two minutes, it never becomes a fully realized composition. But I similar the gentle fingerpicking on the audio-visual and the fashion that John'south wordless vocals blend into the mix. It's the most interesting track in the album's back half… which ways the balance of this disc is gonna SUUUUUUUUCK.
Course: B-
8. Moving On and Getting Over
I want to similar the lightly funky vibe of this song. I realize that John's borrowing liberally from pop and R&B acts who know how to do a lot with a trivial, past starting songs off with a lightly sexy groove and and then building upon them in a way that sneaks up on the listener. John only doesn't seem interested in doing the whole "building" office here. So the song never gets past the light thumping beat out and vaguely playful guitar riffs to requite the states something we tin really sink our teeth into. For song about getting over someone, he sure spends a lot of his time explaining why he's been unable to do this, making what should be a turning betoken in the story of his quest to become a better man instead feel similar a retread of the wishful thinking we heard on the album's opening track. His idea of "moving on" seems to involve hoping she'll reply to his texts and show up for 1 concluding booty phone call, and even when he resolves to actually move on, information technology seems like a rather passive-ambitious endeavour to make her jealous: "I'thousand gonna get a new daughter/It's something I can practise, girl/To effort to go me through, girl." I know rebound relationships are common, but usually people aren't this transparent nearly falling into them out of sheer colorlessness.
Grade: C
9. Never on the Twenty-four hours Yous Leave
As much as information technology irks me when a musician famous for his skills on a specific instrument mostly coasts on simplistic grooves when using that instrument in his studio recordings, information technology irks me more when he decides to switch to a different instrument on which he has comparatively little proficiency. I don't heed to John Mayer albums to hear him play the piano, is what I'm saying here. This is pretty much "Dreaming with a Cleaved Middle, Part 2", and the song onContinuum I'm referencing at least had some sort of a climax to add together weight to its otherwise basic construction. This one has comparatively less weight to it, and as much equally information technology makes you want to feel lamentable for the sad sack guy who can't fifty-fifty process the pain of his girl leaving him until it's been stinging for a few days, it takes a hard turn into his former douchebag habits when he bitterly comments, "She'll fight for yous like hell/Then forcefulness herself to like some other human being." Aye, 'crusade she's too dumb to effigy out for herself who she really likes. The only human being she could ever actually love is obviously you, then if she winds upwardly with someone else,evidently she's faking it. (Insert massive emoji of an eyeroll here.)
Grade: D+
ten. Rosie
To quote John Mayer's Twitter business relationship writing this vocal, "I wanted to write a soulful song about a guy who's a drunk selfish idiot. (Not me.) He's a sweetness lunkhead (Me.)" Alright, benefit of the doubt hither despite some unsettling evidence to the contrary – this song may not actually be about John trying to win dorsum an onetime girlfriend by groveling in the rain and begging for i last one nighttime stand. Information technology's about some character he realizes is a loser. Information technology'southward a cautionary tale. Information technology's still a pathetic and embarrassing song to heed to – quite mayhap 1 of Mayer's all-fourth dimension worst. I've heard some really proficient songs almost conniving man-children pining for their exes to requite them some other take chances while demonstrating exactly why they don't deserve one –Nickel Creek's "Helena" comes to mind. Mayer's accept on this situation is… non clever. At one point, presumably due to the Latin background of the woman likely seconds away from taking out a restraining order on him, he decides to show off a picayune Spanish: "Rosie, don't you know my dear is true/'Perdon' and 'lo siento', see, I learned those words for you." Wow, you learned some grade school vocabulary for her! Typing those three words into Google Translate must have beensuch a sacrifice! Honestly though, it may exist your poor English language skills that are of more than business concern to her, considering you're asking her to practice stupid crap similar "Accept my centre by the hand." There'due south one word that you definitely should know because it means the same thing in both languages, and that give-and-take is "No." Await, I realize Mayer may not be playing the part of himself in this tragic tale of lost dearest. Information technology's just one of those moments where it's hard to separate the individual from the art based on past performance, I approximate. Information technology doesn't help that he's got a more anemic groove going that reminds me of his old song "New Deep", which was non one of my favorites onHeavier Things, and when he lets the guitar sing a bit during the breaks, I tin't assist just imagine him making that stupid sexual practice face that he makes when he'due south clearly way more than into it than his instrument is. Even the guitar probably wishes it had a restraining order at this point.
Class: D-
xi. Roll It On Home
John's reverted to a full-on country vibe hither, which he did a few times on his last few albums, and while it's a audio I don't listen hearing from him, he continues to strike me equally more than of an impressionist copying a genre's broadest mannerisms, rather than one who has really gotten inside the heads of the musicians he's borrowing from and who understands what made them tick. And so again we go a song that's pleasant to listen to (and at to the lowest degree breezy enough to counteract the inert grooves of the last few stabs he took at R&B), merely that doesn't really take much substance. John seems to be playing the role of a bartender hither, consoling a patron who has conspicuously struck out notwithstanding again, reminding his that it's concluding telephone call and he might equally well finish his bottle and caput home, and get back up to home plate to try once more tomorrow. It's not terribly helpful advice, just I approximate the sympathetic atmosphere is marginally convincing. I volition admit that the lines "The concluding x texts were with your ex/And all of 'em were sent by you/Merely yous go along starin' at your telephone/Like something'southward comin' through" are kinda clever. I have to ask myself what the phrase "scroll it on home" actually means, because the first thing that came to heed was getting in the auto to make the long, lonely drive domicile, which is honestly bad advice if the dude's been drinking that much. It could be referring to some other form of stress relief that involves rolling something, I guess. I'll get out that every bit an practise for the reader.
Grade: C-
12. You're Gonna Live Forever in Me
Hey, speaking of doing impressions… John's got a pretty convincing ane in store for u.s. hither, as he closes the record with a cutesy piano ballad on which he does his damndest to imitateRandy Newman. I'm simply vaguely familiar with Newman'southward piece of work (by which I hateful I've seen theToy Storyfilms andThe Naked Gun), and even I could tell what he was going for here. I don't hate that thought in and of itself, merely the few Newman songs I've heard had some sort of sly wit and offbeat storytelling befitting their musical personalities, while all John'south got going for him here is cutesy whistling, and the sentimental hope to remember someone who is no longer function of his life. That could be genuinely adorable if it was an old man saying a sugariness farewell to his wife who had passed away, or Andy saying cheerio to Fizz and Woody when he moved away to college, but when y'all necktie this one into the rest of the anthology and realize that he'south withal clinging to the memories of his time with an ex who is virtually to march down the aisle with some other man, cutesy takes a sudden detour into creepy. What that has to do with the opening verses nigh dinosaurs and planets and the most one-half-assed history of the universe always gear up to music is beyond me. It's a bit as well late to cram "everything" into your last song when you've spent nearly of the record bent out of shape over a woman. The search is over, and John Mayer has come up mostly empty.
Class: C
WHAT'S IT WORTH TO ME?
Still Feel Like Your Man $.75
Emoji of a Wave $1.25
Helpless $.75
Dear on the Weekend $ane
In the Blood $1.25
Changing $0
Theme From 'The Search for Everything' $.75
Moving On and Getting Over $.25
Never on the Day You Leave –$.25
Rosie –$.75
Whorl Information technology On Home $0
Yous're Gonna Live Forever in Me $.25
Total: $5.25
LISTEN FOR YOURSELF:
More USEFUL LINKS:
http://johnmayer.com/
https://world wide web.facebook.com/johnmayer/
Source: https://murlough23.wordpress.com/2017/07/17/john-mayer-the-search-for-everything-i-still-feel-like-youre-bland/
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