Review of the Song Still Feel Like Your Man by John Mayer

Artist: John Mayer
Album: The Search for Everything
Year: 2017
Grade: C

In Brief: This album seems like an amalgamation of all of Mayer'due south previous sounds and styles. It's a smidge more interesting to listen to than the pair of folk albums he released during his "rural isolation" period, and far less infuriating thanBattle Studies, merely I gotta be honest, I still prefer his kickoff three albums, and that's not likely to change whatsoever time soon.

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Isn't it kind of messed up that I consider a thoroughly average, middle-of-the-roadJohn Mayer anthology to be an improvement over his terminal several records? I suppose that just goes to show how far my expectations of the man had fallen after the bottomless trilogy comprised of 2009'southBattle Studies, 2012'sBuilt-in and Raised, and 2013'sParadise Valley. I'll admit that I first got into Mayer'southward music when he was right on the cusp of fame, and withal wrote well-nigh life, love and the occasional quarter-life crisis from a reasonably modest perspective on his mainstream debut, Room for Squares. That made it a bit harder to digest the change in sound when John went for more electric, dejection-influenced pop onHeavier Things andContinuum, but I however found a lot to enjoy nigh those records. Then his ego and a handful of scandals started to go the best of him, and past the fourth dimensionBattle Studies rolled effectually, I only couldn't relate to Mayer any more than. I commented at the time that I was trying my best to dissever the man'due south personal life and public epitome from his songwriting, just even taking what he was writing well-nigh in a vacuum, the guy only seemed exceedingly full 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 take done him some good, and I was excited at the idea of him returning to a more acoustic, folksy audio. Merely the two albums resulting from that phase of his life were largely then boring that I didn't even bother to review them. I figured my days as a John Mayer fan were most definitely in the past.

My impression up until now has been that I'm the party pooper, the dreaded fan of a musician who'southward been around for a long time who just wants him to audio like "the old days" and who can't take change. I figure the general public more or less ate up whatever singles he released and still bought his records to the bespeak where those old albums had get 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 reject e'er sinceRoom for Squares. Now y'all can blame some of that on the changing climate of the music industry and the oftentimes cited fact that "nobody" buys music whatsoever more. Merely wow, the drib-off over the years has been staggering. Possibly the man still 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 bit in order to reconnect with fans he'd lost over the years, because here and at present in 2017, he'due south released an album chosenThe Search for Everything that seems to be an try to recapture pretty much every sound he's attempted over the grade of his career.

To say that I outset listened to this tape with some trepidation would be an understatement. Three bad albums in a row is usually the point where I stop bothering to heed to new textile at all from an creative person, but it's kind of like an abusive relationship with this guy; he keeps promising he'due south a inverse man and I go on buying it. And this time I around, I can actually believe to some caste that he'due south worked through some of his issues and is coming at his songwriting from a wiser perspective. There are definitely a few songs on this record that torpedo my overall favorable impression from the become-go, simply for the well-nigh part, I feel like I'm starting to chronicle to Mayer over again on this record. The championship certainly may be dubious – The Search for Everything sets the listener to expect some sort of grandiose rumination on the nature of being itself and the spectrum of human being experience, when in reality the lion's share of the songs cover the usual subject area matter of hookups and breakups and makeups. One or 2 might actually surprise me by showing a little more than depth. Just for the about part, the championship is presumptuous – it'due south probably the most misleading name he's slapped on an album sinceHeavier Things.

Musically, while I'grand excited to hear the acoustic and electric guitars sharing space a little fleck more than on this tape, I still maintain that Mayer'southward reputation far outstrips his actual performance, every bit most of these songs, even when they're more poppy and/or riff-heavy, seem to be on the more than simplistic side in terms of the instrumental prowess required to perform them. I could existcompletelyincorrect on that, since it'southward not similar I've ever spent time within a recording studio. Merely the fact remains that I'1000 not hearing much that wows me hither. I've heard the occasional standout guitar solo, or unexpected chord sequence on the acoustic that makes me drool, on past Mayer records, so I know what the homo is capable of. He occasionally accomplishes something resembling that here. And information technology'south to this album's credit that each song is distinct enough in its audio that, while I may go them confused with tracks from his previous albums, I don't become any of them confused with each other. I'd imagine several of these songs will do a serviceable chore at radio, while some of the more subdued only pretty ones will exist remembered by fans as worthwhile deep cuts. I don't run across anything here becoming as iconic equally whatever of Mayer's early on hits, but then my listening habits aren't exactly on the cutting border of the mainstream, then I'k probably not the all-time guess of such things anyway. For the most function,The Search for Everything is a pleasant heed that dials dorsum the dullness and douchebaggery of his last few records enough for me to find information technology tolerable. I merely tin can't bring myself to say much of anything significantly more positive about it than that, just coming from me, fifty-fifty saying information technology's average is kind of high praise at this point.

Private TRACKS:

ane. Yet Feel Like Your Man
I'll consider the first rail on this record an accomplishment, if for no other reason than that it has a premise which makes me want to hate it right away, and yet it manages to make me kind of like it. The laid back R&B groove helps here – John'south playing it 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 time getting over an ex-lover. That in and of itself is nothing new for him, but since he tends to date high profile starlets, we all know this is aboutKaty Perry, and he'south said so on the record. His description of how he keeps her stuff around his apartment, just in instance she e'er decides to drop by and relive former times, is nigh pathetic, but then I call back dorsum to "City Love" onRoom for Squares and I realize that a girl keeping her stuff at his place has always been a very symbolic matter for John. I can't say I understand his sense of taste in women, but I gauge I'll give him that one. Some listeners have taken issue with the start verse of the vocal, where "the prettiest girl in the room" seems to be making a motility on him, and information technology kind of sounds like a brag. Only it's interesting to me that he doesn't go for the like shooting fish in a barrel rebound with her. He seems nearly bewildered that someone he considers that attractive is even interested when he's in such a wrecked emotional land. Peradventure it'south withal a bit big-headed to hint that hecould take slept with the woman who is way out of everyone else'southward league, but he didn't, but I take the fact that he passed on the opportunity every bit a sign that he recognizes he needs time for the healing process to complete. All the same a flake of an awkward vocal, but I didn't end upwardly hating it, which means this album'due south off to a insufficiently amazing start.
Grade: B-

two. Emoji of a Wave
This vocal has achampionship that makes me want to hate information technology correct away. I mean, on the scale of Gimmicky Vocal Titles, that's just a notch below your averageFall Out Boy song. Thankfully, there'southward nix in the lyrics that will make this song seem terribly dated in only a decade or two, 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 hither… just actual emotions. You could mind to this one and easily assume it's called "Merely a Wave". Which would take been a more authentic, albeit less attending-grabbing title. Enough about the damn song championship. I actually actually like this vocal. I don't quitelove it, because while the rich, finger-picked audio-visual melody gets me going like nothing on his past two records did, null about it seems quite every bit climactic equally the overwhelming waves of emotion described in John's lyrics. It's a reasonably expert portrait of how the process of getting over someone tin sometimes cripple y'all with a sudden onslaught of fear and sadness and self-dubiety. I'm non going to say it's super insightful – about the just communication he has to give himself here is "Just hold on". But it communicates the feeling reasonably well. I enjoy information technology more than I've enjoyed whatever John Mayer song in the last x years. That's really saying something.
Grade: B+

three. Helpless
This holdover from theBorn and Raised sessions definitely doesn't sound like information technology would have fit on that album at all. It's a more boisterous, electric guitar-driven, anthem about beingness too brazenly stupid to fifty-fifty realize when you need assistance. Presumably equally the consequence of a lot of drinking, as mentioned in the starting time verse, but the lyrics don't give a lot of specifics beyond that. The lyrics are maddeningly repetitive, really, which quite nearly squanders an otherwise catchy chorus past repeating the line "If I'm helpless, tell me at present, tell me at present" three times in succession. He could have filled that in with some more details that just happened to rhyme, and the song would accept been no worse for the wear. Merely what do I know? Listeners intendance more than about songs they tin easily remember and sing along to than songs that actually make some sort of a point, I guess. Equally much every bit I rag on John for not doing enough interesting things with his guitar on his studio albums to warrant his reputation as a killer axe-human, I have to admit that I'chiliad really satisfied with his soloing here. It'due south pretty much what saves the song, in one case the stabby riff and bouncy backbeat that initially get my attention take demonstrated that they're non actually headed anywhere more interesting than where they started off.
Grade: B-

4. Love on the Weekend
And then 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's about as middle-of-the-route adult contemporary as it can be – predictably condom for whatever kinds of radio stations aren't playing the hotter side of mod popular music, I approximate. People take compared information technology to aRoom for Squares carol, and… no. I'thousand not ownership it. Sure, the lyrics are equally wide-eyed and innocent as anything on that record, which is the only real depict here, merely musically, information technology'due south based around keyboards and electrical guitar doing goose egg all that special to a laid-dorsum beat out. Blah. I actually wanted to detest this one, too, from what I initially thought information technology was well-nigh – some sort of a curt-term fling that only lasted for a weekend. Turns out I was incorrect most that, and a few more than listens made it clear that I hadn't been paying attention. He's in love with someone he can only 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 as many activities and love-making sessions as they presumably can, and and so get through the inevitable emotional crash-and-burn every Sunday when they have to say goodbye. The thing is, John does a legitimately skilful job at capturing that feeling of simultaneously being on summit of the world and dreading the separation. "I hate your guts, merely I'm lovin' every minute of it" is the kind of line that would make me come across John as a total jerkass if he'd written information technology in theBattle Studies era, but here it just makes perfect sense. He doesn't actually hate her; he's just playfully describing the heartache they make each other feel every fourth dimension they take to become their carve up ways. I figure this will probably be relatable to folks who take attempted long-distance relationships. Seeing each other every weekend would have been a luxury back when my at present-wife and I were doing that… but that'due south another story. The bespeak is – good storytelling hither, so-so music.
Grade: B

v. In the Blood
Wow, John. Simply, WOW. I really didn't see this one coming, and I mean that in the best way possible. Call up "Stop This Train"? That's the terminal time up until at present that a John Mayer song has packed such an emotional gut-punch for me. Here he finally zooms out from his usual relationship fare and comes up with something that might better fit the purported theme of "everything", due to the big questions it asks almost whether who we are is foretold in our DNA, or whether nosotros have the ability to cull. He begins the song past asking himself how much of his female parent (and so later on his father) is left in him, noting examples of emotional or mental struggles they obviously never quite got over and wondering if he's headed down that aforementioned road simply by virtue of being their son. "Will it wash out in the water, or is it always in the blood?" he asks, which puts a clever spin on the onetime aphorism that blood (significant family) is thicker than h2o (meaning everyone and everything else, I guess). He does necktie this back into relationships when he hints at existence just similar his male parent, giving upwards way as well much of himself to a adult female too presently, and getting jealous when she doesn't go all in as rapidly, might be what's running his various romances straight into the ditch. What's interesting hither is how my parents might have behaved completely different from John'due south parents, yet his specificity about their failings doesn't ruin the universality of the vocal. I've asked myself very similar questions about how much I'g going to turn out like my mother (which in my case would be a positive effect) or like my father (definitely a negative one) and what I have to practice to fight the negative patterns I've observed within my own family tree. So John scores high marks for writing well-nigh this eloquently and withal succinctly. Where he doesn't score such his marks is for the music. I mean, the slow groove and acoustic strum accompanied past handclaps here is OK, I judge… information technology has a slight folk/land feel to it, merely information technology'south very workmanlike. Nobody in this ensemble seems particularly passionate nigh the part they've been given to play. And then if for some reason you managed to tune the lyrics out, this song would probably plow out to be one of the album's least impressive. "Finish This Railroad train" was similarly mellow, just it had a strong acoustic melody leading the way and the instrumentation had a bit more complexity to it. Then that one's still the gold standard for emotional John Mayer songs nearly his family, but this certainly i gets some solid points for trying.
Grade: B+

6. Changing
By John Mayer'due south own access, the chorus of this vocal felt like a 30-second jingle when he first came up with information technology, and he had to figure out how to build a song effectually it. Given that, it'southward probably not much of a surprise that I easily get tired of how the melody circles back on itself here; combined with the all-too-obvious observation that John, like whatsoever other human being, is always changing, it feels like this runway winds up at the one-time Department of Redundancy Department in record fourth dimension. He has to go along going back to that give-and-take "changing" as he makes his inane observations, and when you contrast this with "In the Blood", I think it illustrates the difference between the good and bad kinds of "universal" songwriting – there'south the kind that says stuff we can all relate to, only in a way that perhaps we hadn't thought nearly information technology before, and then there'southward the kind that says stuff we all knew well-nigh ourselves and that doesn't add anything insightful to the conversation. And then the lyricsand the melody are total wash here… what'due south left? A pretty decent guitar solo in the center viii. I wish it had been part of a completely unlike song, merely at least it offers some respite from the monotony.
Grade: 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 title. I mean, was it not enough to simply let this i be the title 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 bated, I exercise enjoy the laid-back acoustic feel of this ane. It's as balmy-mannered and modestly folksy as annihilation from Mayer's "rural isolation" albums, and it's got that whole "backing music that plays on the hotel Telly guide channel while a slideshow of pretty local scenery plays in the top half of the screen" vibe to it. So, zilch terribly heady. And at less than ii minutes, it never becomes a fully realized composition. But I like the gentle fingerpicking on the acoustic and the manner that John's wordless vocals blend into the mix. Information technology'south the nearly interesting runway in the album's back half… which means the balance of this disc is gonna SUUUUUUUUCK.
Grade: B-

8. Moving On and Getting Over
I want to like 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 picayune, by starting songs off with a lightly sexy groove and and so building upon them in a manner that sneaks up on the listener. John merely doesn't seem interested in doing the whole "building" part here. So the song never gets past the light thumping beat and vaguely playful guitar riffs to requite us something we tin can really sink our teeth into. For song near getting over someone, he certain spends a lot of his time explaining why he'south been unable to do this, making what should be a turning point in the story of his quest to become a meliorate human being instead feel like a retread of the wishful thinking nosotros heard on the album's opening track. His idea of "moving on" seems to involve hoping she'll respond to his texts and prove upwardly for i concluding booty call, and even when he resolves to actually move on, it seems like a rather passive-ambitious endeavor to make her jealous: "I'm gonna get a new girl/Information technology's something I tin do, girl/To endeavor to get me through, girl." I know rebound relationships are common, but ordinarily people aren't this transparent about falling into them out of sheer boredom.
Grade: C

nine. Never on the Day You Leave
As much every bit information technology irks me when a musician famous for his skills on a specific instrument more often than not coasts on simplistic grooves when using that musical instrument in his studio recordings, it irks me more when he decides to switch to a different instrument on which he has comparatively little proficiency. I don't listen to John Mayer albums to hear him play the piano, is what I'm maxim hither. This is pretty much "Dreaming with a Broken Heart, Part ii", and the song onContinuum I'm referencing at least had some sort of a climax to add weight to its otherwise basic construction. This ane has comparatively less weight to it, and as much every bit it makes you want to feel deplorable for the sad sack guy who can't even process the hurting of his daughter leaving him until it's been stinging for a few days, information technology takes a hard turn into his old douchebag habits when he bitterly comments, "She'll fight for you lot like hell/And then force herself to like some other human being." Yep, 'cause she's too dumb to figure out for herself who she really likes. The only man she could ever actually dear is obviously you, and then if she winds up with someone else,obviously she'south faking it. (Insert massive emoji of an eyeroll hither.)
Grade: D+

x. Rosie
To quote John Mayer's Twitter account writing this song, "I wanted to write a soulful song well-nigh a guy who'south a drunkard selfish idiot. (Not me.) He'south a sweetness lunkhead (Me.)" Alright, benefit of the doubt here despite some unsettling evidence to the reverse – this song may non actually be about John trying to win dorsum an old girlfriend by groveling in the rain and begging for i last one night stand. Information technology's nearly some graphic symbol he realizes is a loser. It's a cautionary tale. Information technology'due south however a pathetic and embarrassing song to listen to – quite mayhap one of Mayer's best worst. I've heard some really good songs near conniving man-children pining for their exes to give them some other hazard while demonstrating exactly why they don't deserve one –Nickel Creek'due south "Helena" comes to listen. Mayer's take on this situation is… not 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 love is true/'Perdon' and 'lo siento', see, I learned those words for y'all." Wow, you learned some grade schoolhouse vocabulary for her! Typing those 3 words into Google Translate must have beensuch a sacrifice! Honestly though, it may be your poor English skills that are of more concern to her, considering you lot're request her to do stupid crap like "Take my heart by the hand." At that place's one word that yous definitely should know because information technology means the aforementioned thing in both languages, and that word is "No." Look, I realize Mayer may not be playing the role of himself in this tragic tale of lost love. It'due south but one of those moments where it's hard to separate the individual from the art based on past performance, I gauge. It doesn't aid that he'south got a more anemic groove going that reminds me of his former song "New Deep", which was non one of my favorites onHeavier Things, and when he lets the guitar sing a flake during the breaks, I can't help just imagine him making that stupid sex face that he makes when he's clearly way more than into it than his instrument is. Fifty-fifty the guitar probably wishes it had a restraining order at this signal.
Form: D-

eleven. Roll It On Home
John'south reverted to a total-on land vibe here, which he did a few times on his last few albums, and while it'south a sound I don't mind hearing from him, he continues to strike me equally more of an impressionist copying a genre'southward broadest mannerisms, rather than 1 who has really gotten inside the heads of the musicians he's borrowing from and who understands what made them tick. And then once over again we get a song that'due south pleasant to mind to (and at least informal enough to annul the inert grooves of the last few stabs he took at R&B), merely that doesn't really have much substance. John seems to be playing the role of a bartender hither, consoling a patron who has clearly struck out yet again, reminding his that it'southward terminal phone call and he might as well finish his canteen and head home, and get back up to home plate to try again tomorrow. Information technology's non terribly helpful communication, only I judge the sympathetic temper is marginally convincing. I will admit that the lines "The final ten texts were with your ex/And all of 'em were sent past you lot/But you lot keep starin' at your phone/Like something'south comin' through" are kinda clever. I have to ask myself what the phrase "curlicue it on dwelling house" actually means, because the showtime thing that came to heed was getting in the car to make the long, solitary drive home, which is honestly bad advice if the dude's been drinking that much. It could exist referring to another form of stress relief that involves rolling something, I guess. I'll leave that equally an exercise for the reader.
Grade: C-

12. You lot're Gonna Live Forever in Me
Hey, speaking of doing impressions… John's got a pretty convincing one in store for us here, as he closes the record with a cutesy pianoforte ballad on which he does his damndest to imitateRandy Newman. I'm only vaguely familiar with Newman'southward work (by which I mean I've seen theToy Storyfilms andThe Naked Gun), and fifty-fifty I could tell what he was going for here. I don't hate that thought in and of itself, but the few Newman songs I've heard had some sort of sly wit and offbeat storytelling befitting their musical personalities, while all John's got going for him hither is cutesy whistling, and the sentimental promise to remember someone who is no longer role of his life. That could be genuinely adorable if it was an quondam man saying a sweet farewell to his wife who had passed away, or Andy proverb adieu to Fizz and Woody when he moved abroad to college, simply when you tie this one into the rest of the album and realize that he's still clinging to the memories of his time with an ex who is nigh to march down the alley with another human being, cutesy takes a sudden detour into creepy. What that has to do with the opening verses near dinosaurs and planets and the most half-assed history of the universe e'er set to music is beyond me. It's a chip also late to cram "everything" into your last song when you've spent most of the tape bent out of shape over a woman. The search is over, and John Mayer has come up by and large empty.
Grade: C

WHAT'Southward IT WORTH TO ME?
Still Feel Similar Your Homo $.75
Emoji of a Wave $1.25
Helpless $.75
Love on the Weekend $1
In the Blood $1.25
Changing $0
Theme From 'The Search for Everything' $.75
Moving On and Getting Over $.25
Never on the Mean solar day You Go out –$.25
Rosie –$.75
Roll It On Home $0
You're Gonna Live Forever in Me $.25
Total: $5.25

LISTEN FOR YOURSELF:

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Source: https://murlough23.wordpress.com/2017/07/17/john-mayer-the-search-for-everything-i-still-feel-like-youre-bland/

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