John Mayer singles poll

no such thing

... as a good john mayer song

lol good one

top 10:
1. No Such Thing
2. Clarity
3. Daughters
4. Half Of My Heart (featuring Taylor Swift)
5. Why Georgia
6. Say
7. Heartbreak Warfare
8. Bigger Than My Body
9. Who Says
10. Gravity

srsly though... i'd pick "half of my heart," but i can only ever remember hearing that one, "waiting on the world" (snoozy, stars-in-yr-eyes passive anthem for "change"), "yr body" (smarmy) and "heartbreak warfare" (ugh son)

Waiting On The World To Change (live)

i only know like three of these, i guess i would vote for this one, altho i have no idea what the "live" version is about

"no such thing" obv

no such thing

I've learned to love "Half of My Heart."

Waiting On The World To Change (live)

i only know like three of these, i guess i would vote for this one, altho i have no idea what the "live" version is about

― *plop*timist (J0rdan S.), Thursday, December 16, 2010 12:56 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i fucked that up, the song before it "Who Did You Think I Was" is from a live album and i added the (live) part to the wrong title. that song is ass, though, you should vote for something else.

I'd like to say 'Clarity by a mile', but I like "Bigger Than My Body" a lot too. But after that it's a drop.

The relative failure of "Clarity" to "Daughters" couldn't have helped him on his path to ultimate douche-itude

aw, you should vote for "Clarity," you're the only other person i know of who knows how good it is. surprised you don't like anything since then, though, imo "Half of My Heart" and "Say" and "Heartbreak Warfare" are all top notch.

I've never been able to decide if "Waiting on the World to Change" is intended as a critique of passivity or just as an honest expression of powerlessness. I don't like the song very much, but I think it's sort of a good cultural signpost. Of some kind.

Christgau's 2008 presentation at EMP asked the same question.

Oh, I def voted for "clarity." Just had to admit I loved "bigger" too. Liked about half of continuum, but the singles weren't so hot ("Belief" is probably my fave by default, "Waiting" is like Randy Newman without the irony). The Battle Studies stuff just seemed really bland and trite, feels like his whole smart-guy-who-knows-he's-hot-shit thing has curdled since it went tabloid.

what was the answer?!?!

xp

nothin mayer has said implies its a critique, there's a whole thread about it somewhere.

wish Randy would actually cover "Waiting" just to point out the absurdity of it

I don't remember. I think he accused him of wanting it both ways. I know I was thirty and ran out for a water.

Yeah Randy Newman w/o the irony sounds about right.

is why georgia the one where he goes OOHHHHH BUT YOU KNEW THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MILES AND COLTRANE

woops, no, that's the album track "comfortable"

"Why Georgia" was big on adult contempo station i'd have to listen to when working breakfast shifts at a shitty sandwich shop circa 2003. just thinking about the song reminds me of making egg sandwiches, but i really do think it's got a pretty great melody.

afaik "waiting on the world to change" is the last of these i've heard

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

dreaming with a broken heart

Heartbreak Warfare

i heard this song on the radio today & it totally rules -- would like to change my vote

it's pretty decent, though I've always been kind of lukewarm on that one, mostly because it clearly signified him moving back away from his blues-infused pop on Continuum and headed to something that wasn't even as engaging as what he did before.

in fact the whole album is pretty boring sans a few songs. even the singles didn't seem to be up to their usual standard.

red wine and ambien
you're talking shit again

I know I was thirty and ran out for a water.

― Gus Van Sotosyn (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, December 16, 2010 2:30 PM (5 days ago) Bookmark

an unsung typo

J0rdan S., your taste in rock/pop deserves its own forum separate from ILM

i don't even know what that means -- not to mention that my tastes in rock & pop are not really abnormal by ilm standards (except for maybe extreme blink 182 stannery)

heard "No Such Thing" in the mall yesterday, that is a good-ass song

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

http://cdn.20minutos.es/img2/recortes/2011/10/06/34013-944-550.jpg

glad "no such thing" won because if not that would've been stupid

fathers be good to your markers, markers will love like you do

i actually like "bigger than my body" a lot

this guy can really shred!

thought this revive was gonna be the album out next week with Frank Ocean and Katy Perry features and a Taylor Swift diss

wow that is a hideous sentence

he moved to some ranch in montana and listened to the dead 24/7.

http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/18mkzdvkkinc8jpg/original.jpg

makes sense, he's kind of the Ben Affleck of music

new album is boring even by his standards

i wish i was paying attention to apple when he was doing shit w/ jobs during keynotes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MRDDJjTwTw

wow, kanye IS the new steve jobs, he knows john mayer too

http://cdn.cultofmac.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/761181fda92ac8f1225f7a1a29509c3d753cce2c.jpg

thread need more pictures of the modern day john mayer that gets to see katy perry naked

http://www.gannett-cdn.com/-mm-/ac1394dbdcca6a36cbf486633b129cd813095ac3/r=x404&c=534x401/local/-/media/USATODAY/USATODAY/2013/07/13/1373736450003-AP-People-John-Mayer-1307131332_4_3.jpg

http://www.billboard.com/files/styles/promo_650/public/media/john-mayer-press-2013-650-430.jpg

Oh my god its such a treat to log in to see Neanderthal live posting the new Josh Mayer record.

"Til the Right One Comes"

brief appearance of "Human Nature"-esque synths, but very underutilized. this song uses the same chord progression as almost all generic Mayer. feels a bit lazy. meh.

xpost lol, and this is actually the first one I've listened to in over a decade I think.

"Carry Me Away" - this feels like a sister to the lead single. more of the weird tacked on piano, where it's really not needed cos the synths and acoustic do most of the job.

a bit dreamy, but it's not like Thompson Twins or anything. pretty effective penultimate tune

and the grand finale, "All I Want is to Be with You". more of the "popped up Heartland rock" sound. like really slicked-over Springsteen ("Tunnel of Love" but more guitar-y and well you know Mayer's voice isn't Bruce's).

nice window-dressing instrumentation in the middle

on this entire album he never leaves his low register, it's weird. he usually always does, but he just sits in a very small pocket throughout.

overall, i'd say b-plus album, it's pleasant enough, doesn't do enough with the concept advertised via the album cover or the lead single, but pleasant enough. won't convert new fans.

ok, back to the Bathtub Shitter listening thread I go.

lol

I'm definitely curious to check this one, probably get around to it sometime this weekend. Disappointed to hear it doesn't go far enough with the "concept" though, that's what had me sold.

fwiw, I loved the "Last Train Home" video, really nailed that aesthetic imo:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66Ne5dVDfLM

that song did the most with the concept. where the synths actually came to the forefront and were percussive and stabby rather than kind of laying in the background.

good lead single choice, adn now I have another karaoke tune to sing.

he says "i loved seven other women and they all were you", barf.

"Four of you that want to own me
Two of you that want to stone me
One of you says she's a friend of mine"

The video just reads to me like a low-budget parody of the style. Maren Morris’s involvement is pretty random.

I mean, she sings backup on three of the album's songs, so probably not that random.

I mean on the album generally (I guess she does love her 80s Mercedes…).

I was preparing a guy for his 'contemporary guitar' college audition about 10 years ago. All he wanted to do was John Mayer tunes.

which ones

I like this album, but the 80s-ness of it mostly begins and ends with Last Train.

However, Why You No Love Me instills me with a murderous rage.

I skimmed thru it on my morning drive. His gtr is sort of Knopfler-esque on "Wild Blue," but mainly it just sounds like an album of bad John Mayer songs. (And as already pointed out, the melody of the final track is totally "I Want It That Way.")

He should have hired Hornsby to play on Shot in the Dark. It's clear the song is modeled on him, so not hearing his distinctive sound on it is a big letdown.

They're both in the Dead family, too.

"Slow Dancing in a Burning Room" and "Come When I Call". There were a couple of things you were required to play as well but these were the 'own choice' tunes. He was really good. xps to Neanderthal

He already knew these songs. I was helping more with the required pieces and theory/reading. I was just reminded of it by the 'guitar guy's discussion.

lol missed seeing this ad

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E6HKGQ0WYAILHX4.jpg

this guy is truly one of the dumbest fuckin lyricists in history

'm the boy in your other phone
Lighting up inside your drawer at home all alone
Pushing 40 in the friend zone

I mean...I dunno, the mimicry of a certain mid-to-late 80s Hornsby/Dire Straits/etc production style is impressive in a way but he just doesn't really have the goods in terms of songs

this feels like a 1988 album that would have had 2 singles that peaked at 28 and 32 on the Billboard charts then disappeared

Are we supposed to be believe that Mayer has a hard time getting laid? His penis's well documented white supremacy views aside

I think the angst being expressed in these songs is that he gets laid all the time but not by The Right Girl.

"Wild Blue" stands out on the album because the lyrics are simple and the guitar noodling goes on a long time, and it's just good chill beach-and-bistro music.

I wish the album were as playful and funny as its ad campaign, but I do think he's thoroughly self-aware as a pop songwriter and not aiming for confession any more than Diane Warren is.

I think a lot about the post in the Ryan Adams thread a couple years ago that suggested the music industry invested in Adams to be what Mayer ended up becoming: a pop songwriter, connected to the lineage of those before him in fun ways (touring as part of The Dead), connected to pop culture beyond music (doing shows with Chappelle), and so on.

honestly didn’t know he wrote his own songs, Dianne Warren analogy makes sense

thats why all the guitar hero dad nerds love him - he writes his own stuff and has guitar chops and brings in a bunch of great studio cats to work with him

I've yet to hear any guitar work from him that seems the least bit compelling to me, but he definitely seems to get a lot of kudos in that world

think he says on record he just dumbs it down and keeps it simple

Continuum has most of it but honestly the most he shredded was on Chappelle's Show lmao

lots of 'tasteful' playing yeah

Yeah his studio stuff isn't really where to hear it. But I'm also not going to waste any energy trying to convince anyone on ilx that his playing with Dead & Co is occasionally worth hearing.

this is his best work IMO

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynq7pAEwp6Y

Given the period detail, will be funny if this is his New Jersey!

20 years deep in a steady career, it seems unlikely he'll ever have a New Jersey—unless his debut album counts. I imagine he shed some "Your Body..."-only fans/album buyers by the time of his next one.

I looked up his stats for the NJ thread, and, well, yeah he doesn't really qualify. Big debut, followed by several solid sellers albeit with ultimately diminishing #s, ala Pearl Jam.

It's not the same, but I do recall tons of copies of his Trio live album hitting used bins shortly after it came out.

Something I made and posted elsewhere on ILM

https://frinkiac.com/video/S04E05/ZcxmdX47EyOkm0rfXgzDlPTKch4=.gif

I've yet to hear any guitar work from him that seems the least bit compelling to me, but he definitely seems to get a lot of kudos in that world

― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, July 16, 2021 3:08 PM (six days ago) bookmarkflaglink

think he says on record he just dumbs it down and keeps it simple

― pure rim rest (Spottie), Friday, July 16, 2021 3:16 PM (six days ago) bookmarkflaglink

I've said before I'd like to hear him stretch out on something, maybe take some risks, make mistakes. Even in the Dead & Co footage I've seen he plays it safer than I'd like, part of why I more enjoy Billy Strings with Billy and the Kids even though you could make a case for John Mayer as the "better" guitarist. Like Mayer is obviously a guitar wiz -- if you've ever seen his guitar tik toks where he breaks stuff down, he is undeniably brilliant. But there's something about him that just can't bear to allow any cracks in the perfect facade. Even this new record, the concept, the way it's marketed, the sound, really "nails" the aesthetic. Does it do anything else?

Fwiw, part of the thing with Dead & Co, especially in the early tours, is that Bob Weir is the de facto leader and he can be weirdly risk averse for a guy who built is legacy with a band like that. There were several times I'd get really interested in what Mayer was playing during a jam, only to have Bobby ripcord and overpower him with the song's main riff to bring it back in. It's gotten a lot better in recent tours though.

"his legacy"

MORE LIKE SAAB ROCK AMIRITE

https://img.discogs.com/aEDzC0rVjpqPJTTvL1C7LDg4kSA=/fit-in/300x300/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(40)/discogs-images/R-4096718-1355103855-8401.jpeg.jpg

continuum: really good lowkey neo-soul record. so good that i look at most of what he's released since and think wtf happened to this guy

otm. Continuum is his classic, and then he abandoned that and went back to mostly middling stuff

actually remember being surprised when I first heard "Vultures", as I hadn't heard anything of his after "Your Body is a Wonderland", and was like "this is THAT guy?"

"vultures" sounds like a freaking maxwell song, it is outrageously wonderful

Surprised “vultures” was not released as a single, it’s one of his best songs and sounds to me very radio friendly.

I did have to endure an xgau panel paper where he went all-in on "Waiting for the World to Change."

But yes, agree that Continuum is his definitive album.

Great production, great musicianship and his songwriting improves a lot from previous efforts. It’s the one that best balances his pop, rock, blues, soul influences into a John Mayer cohesive style. This album and the live performances around the era showed and undeniable skill and knowledge, shame he wasn’t up to continue on this path.

i dont trust myself sounds like a dangelo song

that song was weird for me because I got into this album because the girl I was dating at the time was obsessed and both of us identified HEAVILY with "I Don't Trust Myself" lyrically at the time, but for different reasons.

was a beautiful bonding experience listening to the songs together.

best Mayer song is Back to You imo.