I’ve been listening to John Mayer’s new album, Sob Rock. Here are my thoughts: if you like John Mayer, he has a new album out.
HA! That’s it. I’m happy to write gear reviews, because they’re items and they usually cost a lot of money. I won’t write an album review as if I were a music critic, because I have no use for music critics. Never have, never will. Who cares what someone else thinks? If you care, you’re either in high school and haven’t learned better yet, or you worry too much about what other people think.
But I will say that I do like the album. I’m a Mayer fan – I’ve seen him 3 times, I think. He’s a hell of a guitar player if you like blues/jazz based guitar playing, which I do.
I can also talk tone. This album heavily features his PRS Silver Sky model, which is basically a Strat with a thick neck and interesting pickups. But I’m sure he used other guitars on the album. This is a dude who owns a Dumble. He’s very, very into tone. No HX Stomp being used here… that I know of.
OK, I’ll also say that the trend of artists releasing songs one at a time over 6 months and then putting out an album is annoying to me. I’m a sucker for pop/rock from the 70s and 80s. When “New Light” came out, I played the crap out of it. It’s what I’m shooting for with a lot of my own songs (like “Never Completely”).
Mayer did a bizarre interview on Apple Music regarding this album and it reminded me once again that he has more in common with Frank Zappa than Jack Johnson. Mayer is a smart guy who thinks a lot and has obviously spent a lot of time thinking about his own thinking (it takes one to know one.) If you’re a fan, check out the interview. One thing that stuck out to me was that he was shooting for songs that sound like something you’ve heard before but haven’t. I mean, that’s a pretty good description of songwriting in the modern era. I can almost always figure out other songs that use similar melodies in almost any song. Every melody has been used before – the trick is to make them sound just different enough that people aren’t thinking about “Ice Ice Baby” when they hear your song.
So yeah, there you go – my non-review of John Mayer’s cool new album “Sob Rock” that I’m currently listening to and enjoying. If you hate it, I don’t care. If you love it, we have something in common. It’s all art. You like it or you don’t. Nothing wrong with either response.
