Getting Through Sad Boy Hours By Ranking Songs On John Mayer's New Album
John Mayer's latest 80's inspired album Sob Rock came out July 16th and the "Don Henley vibes" have been keeping the right amount of upbeat sadness around this summer. Mayer fans gave his 8th solo studio project mixed reviews, but after having enough time to digest all the tracks, I'm here to say the album is damn good. Every time John Mayer comes out with new music it's always held to the "Continuum standard", where people don't give the new songs credit because they aren't the same formula as his best studio album. As Jay-Z once said, "Want my old shit? Buy my old album." If you'd like to check out John Mayers new album this is how I'd rate the tracks …
1/3 of the album was released as singles so I'm going to divide the songs by old / new … here are the singles Mayer put out prior to the album release …
- Last Train Home the strongest single on the album (and the newest) makes you feel like you're in an 80's power ballad while still keeping it in 2021.
- Carry Me Away I slept on this song when it first came out, but it's upbeat, fun, and catchy with great lyrics.
- I Guess I Just Feel Like I love a sad song, and when this came out during the winter it was perfect seasonal depression blues music.
- New Light *I do enjoy this song, but not as much as everyone else. It never grew on me. Most would put this as their favorite single, and some people will even be as insane to put it as their favorite JM song of all time (MRags).
That was the old. Now, the new …
- Shot In The Dark Everything you want in a JM song, deep lyrics, great guitar, this is what I would cringingly call Classic Mayer.
- Till The Right One Comes People have been comparing songs on the album to Don Henley, but I get Steve Miller vibes from this song. Positive vibes and a great windows down driving song.
- It Shouldn't Matter, But It Does Nothing gets me harder than dwelling on past sadness.
- Wild Blue This song could get a second life when JM performs it live due to the incredible guitar solo towards the end. Much like the song Rosie from The Search For Everything. I didn't immediately love Rosie, but I fell in love with the song after seeing what Mayer did with it live.
- All I Want Is To Be With You This the last track on the album and I don't think it's a coincidence this song sounds like the score from an old western film where the hero cowboy is riding off into the sunset.
- Why You No Love Me This is the only song I don't care for on the album. Some good lyrics in the song, but anytime a grown adult uses baby talk, Im out.
The strongest song on the album even matches that energy with an incredible music video featuring all the the 80's music video stereotypes …