John Mayer: Sob Rock and a Pink Silver Sky

DrBob

Aidanspaghetti said:

fretmeister said:

Is it my imagination or is JM channeling the very worst Clapton era?

No. Mayer is plugged in.

Wisdom awarded

Musicman20

NelsonP said:

I don't get John Mayer at all. He's obviously very talented but his music doesn't do it for me. Lee Anderton and Danish Pete did a video on this song and their obvious over-enthusiasm was hard to watch.

Same. The fawning over him is embarrassing. It is probably a little tongue in cheek but putting this guy on a pedestal is just a bit weird. Talented guy....plays well...makes money.

Mind you, most of the Andertons fawning is just to make more money...all marketing in the end. 

maw4neu

Not a fan of JM but he is tremondous guitar player . . .  I might be late to this party but the song " Last Train Home "  genuinely sounds like one Eric would have knoocked out in the 80's  . . Its got the depth of a puddle ! Bit naff !

jimification

Greatape said:

Val McCallum. Vastly underrated and an excellent musician. Small output if solo albums but some great live video of his band Jackshit. 

Fantastic player! I only heard him when Dan Strain posted some of his clips on his instagram a while back. He needs to do more of these little vids in this character! Very cool and such a great player.

4,16829

2,80017

Strat54

Val McCallum is great, I'm Facebook friends with him. Hard to look at him and not see his famous actor dad though lol. 

Boromedic

Pink Silver Skys are now available!!!! You know you want one.....

Lev

It's like Wierd Al Yankovich meets Don Henley - I haven't decided if it is musically any good. The album will need a few listens but the overly tonge in cheek 80's video is quite distracting

Musicman20

Potentially the biggest marketing plot aimed at middle aged slightly well off men I've ever heard of. Buy my album and a pink £2.5k guitar please.

markslade07

I'm a John Mayer fan, and although Last Train Home is very 80s, I quite liked it. However, having downloaded the full album this morning upon its release....I stopped it halfway through as I got bored. Maybe it will take a few listens but it's just pretty bland...not a patch on the live stuff which is mostly incredible. Shame.

Lewy

Lev said:

It's like Wierd Al Yankovich meets Don Henley - I haven't decided if it is musically any good. The album will need a few listens but the overly tonge in cheek 80's video is quite distracting

That video is (I assume deliberately) bloody hilarious! The dove release being a real highlight. I genuinely think he's just trying to make people smile in a bit of a nostalgic way.

dindude

I’ve had a quick listen and musically it’s refined but ultimately flimsy as fuck, perfectly enjoyable when in the right mood and doesn’t take itself too seriously. Just wish he had a few more subject matters rather than love cliches that, with each album, sound less like they are coming from a lothario and increasingly like it’s from someone who needs to get out more and meet real women. 

chrisj1602

I’m gonna have a listen to it now while I work. I’ve never listened to a JM album before…

*Edit, I just got the chorus of “Why you no love me” and despite working at home alone, as soon as I heard that lyric “oh, fuck off” came out of my mouth without a single thought. What a wank lyric.

Aornic

dindude said:

I’ve had a quick listen and musically it’s refined but ultimately flimsy as fuck, perfectly enjoyable when in the right mood and doesn’t take itself too seriously. Just wish he had a few more subject matters rather than love cliches that, with each album, sound less like they are coming from a lothario and increasingly like it’s from someone who needs to get out more and meet real women. 

It's sadder when you know that it's all directed at Katy Perry, and that the last album in 2017 was a breakup album about her too.

Album is okay, I'd give it a 3/5 and maybe some stuff will grow on me. "Why You No Love Me" is a skip from me every time. I get what he was trying to do, but no.

The 80s schmaltz is layered on so heavily that him recently calling the album a shitpost makes sense to me. The outro of "Shouldn't Matter But It Does" pretty much lifts the synth lines from "Broken Wings" by Mr. Mister.

There's not a lot of guitar playing so a lot of his guitarist fans will probably find that disappointing, but there's plenty of extended outro jam material for his live shows - which is essentially where those fans find their favourite moments anyway.

Those who are wishing for a trimphant return to the John Mayer Trio days can forget it. Guy does what he wants and every comment he reads demanding such will push him that much further away from it.

Oh well. Continuum remains his only album I can enjoy back-to-back.

My favourite on this are:

New Light (originally released in 2018 and remains the best track to me).

Wild Blue (despite the awkwardly fast transition from verses to choruses, the opposite is handled better and the Knopler influence is strong).

I Guess I Just Feel Like (released in 2019 and famously has an original Epiphone Casino in the outro solo and that one tapped lick everyone copied for a while). The actual song is alright but the guitar work is nice and it builds to that moment.

Shouldn't Matter But It Does (Pretty much the song that gave the album its name)

All I Want Is To Be With You (his take on "I Want It That Way" by the Backstreet Boys ).

stickyfiddle

I like a lot of his early-mid stuff but this is junk. Probably a fun record basically to make in terms of recreating old sounds and vibes but I just can't be bothered to get enthusiastic about it when the production can't even be bothered trying to make sound interesting or fun or sad or anything beyond existing as wallpaper. I don't get the love for the funny colours Silver Skies either (which goes towards my argument that PRS is where interesting musicians turn when the fire dies. But I won't get into that here...)

New Light is ok I guess.

Philly_Q

Lewy said:

Lev said:

It's like Wierd Al Yankovich meets Don Henley - I haven't decided if it is musically any good. The album will need a few listens but the overly tonge in cheek 80's video is quite distracting

That video is (I assume deliberately) bloody hilarious! The dove release being a real highlight. I genuinely think he's just trying to make people smile in a bit of a nostalgic way.

That was indeed pretty funny - I'm sure it's intentional, but if it's not, then it's utterly ridiculous.

I think I've already stated earlier in the thread that I'm not a fan, but I don't really want to re-open the "he's a twat"/"oh no he isn't" debate. 

I'm just wondering what people think of the general idea of releasing an album which is essentially a sort of joke.  It sounds like some of the songs are pretty crap, even in the opinion of fans, and perhaps Mayer would say "ah, but it's supposed to be crap, that's the point" - but that doesn't change the fact that they're not enjoyable to listen to.  And he's expecting people to pay for it (although to be fair they're more likely streaming it for free).

It's a bit like intentionally making a bad horror movie - the director can say "I put in all those stupid cliches and jump scares on purpose", but they're still stupid cliches and they're still tedious to watch.  "So bad it's good" is something you can really only achieve accidentally.

thecolourbox

I think somebody else hit the nail on the head a few posts up, I think it's part of a marketing campaign rather than being a serious creative work. He'll make relative peanuts from people streaming it but it'll sell a few Silver Sky models and keeps his online presence going for when he does tours etc

elstoof

Sounds like the kind of bland shite that’s aimed at being equally tolerable to both the man and women stuck in a house together during covid. Dido with a guitar

TINMAN82

chrisj1602 said:

I’m gonna have a listen to it now while I work. I’ve never listened to a JM album before…

*Edit, I just got the chorus of “Why you no love me” and despite working at home alone, as soon as I heard that lyric “oh, fuck off” came out of my mouth without a single thought. What a wank lyric.

Have to agree, terrible lyric and the song (saved slightly by a decent little guitar solo) is largely an instant skip.

Album as a whole is ok. Probably my least favourite of his last 4-5 releases. As others allude to and as with much of his pop output, will translate far better live. Schmaltz for the 20-30 something young ladies, guitar soloing vessels for the players.

Aornic

TINMAN82 said:

Schmaltz for the 20-30 something young ladies, guitar soloing vessels for the players.

His M.O. since 2006 eh?

Lewy

Philly_Q said:

I'm just wondering what people think of the general idea of releasing an album which is essentially a sort of joke.  It sounds like some of the songs are pretty crap, even in the opinion of fans, and perhaps Mayer would say "ah, but it's supposed to be crap, that's the point" - but that doesn't change the fact that they're not enjoyable to listen to.  And he's expecting people to pay for it (although to be fair they're more likely streaming it for free).

I think that's the point really - he knows that nobody is going to buy it before they listen to it so his joke - and I think that is what it is - isn't at anyone's expense other than his own. The whole campaign has been tongue in cheek - "life is hard, rock soft" - the only people getting upset are the ones demanding some sort of serious musical merit and guitarslinging which isn't there ...and which if it was there they'd find a way of slagging off too. So he's put something out that some people will just love because they like bubblegum pop, some people will get a wry kick out of, and some people will get really cross in a way that he'll probably get a kick out of.