This album makes me cranky.<\/p>\n
I will attempt to explain the above statement, but make no
\npromises. Sometimes music is like a Rorschach test; your reaction
\nsimply is what it is.<\/p>\n
It’s not that John Mayer’s music offends; to the contrary, it’s
\nso inoffensive as to verge on bland. It’s not that
\nRoom For Squares<\/i> isn’t well-crafted; to the contrary, at
\ntimes it’s artful to the point where you begin to question whether
\nthere’s any there there. (I told you this wasn’t going to be
\neasy\u2026)<\/p>\n
Mayer’s approach is in fact the very epitome of modern, earnest,
\nsinger-songwriter folk-pop, sort of a cross between Jewel and a
\nsolo Dave Matthews. Indeed, ever since the first hit single “No
\nSuch Thing” (“I wanna run through the halls of my high school \/
\netc.”) came out, the Matthews comparisons have fallen like rain.
\nRightfully so, for two reasons. One is that the album was produced
\nby former Matthews engineer and producer John Alagia. The other is
\nthat Mayer sings in a breathy, slightly nasal coo that’s undeniably
\nsimilar to Matthews’ typical approach to ballads. Except Mayer
\nsings that way ALL THE TIME.<\/p>\n
The emergence of second single (and — gulp — Grammy winner)
\n“Your Body Is A Wonderland” has only stoked the fires of
\ncomparison, inasmuch as it amounts to little more than a PG-13
\nrewrite of Matthews’ steamy ballad “Crash Into Me.” Don’t get me
\nwrong; it’s a pretty song, with some nice turns of phrase to be
\nfound along the way. But hearing Mayer perform it right in front of
\na truly stellar James Taylor performance — and then, God help us,
\nbeat Taylor out for a Grammy — is flat-out ridiculous.<\/p>\n
But I digress. When Mayer does get away from the obvious
\nMatthews-isms, his strong suit quickly becomes clear — he has a
\nreal gift for self-effacing, soul-searching folk songs. “Why
\nGeorgia” and “My Stupid Mouth” are the best examples and the
\nstrongest cuts here, wry self-examinations anchored by Mayer’s very
\nsolid, rhythmic acoustic guitar.<\/p>\n
At the same time, “Why Georgia” goes a long way for me toward
\npinpointing the source of the problem: Alagia’s homogenized,
\nelectrified folk-pop production. The song starts out beautifully
\nwith just Mayer and his acoustic, before an entirely unnecessary
\nelectric guitar and rhythm section barge in and overpower him. This
\noccurs again and again throughout the album, as Alagia’s
\nsqueaky-clean, overly-textured pop arrangements undermine otherwise
\ndeserving lyrics like “83.” The only place where the production
\nactually seems like an asset is on the ringing power-pop track
\n(with the ironic ballad-ish title) “Love Song For No One.”<\/p>\n
The end result of this collision of styles is an album that
\nwants very badly to be genuine, but ends up, thanks to the overly
\nslick production, often feeling manufactured to the point of
\ninsincerity. Considering that the whole appeal of singer-songwriter
\nfolk-pop is its intimacy and sincerity, it’s a pretty deadly flaw.
\nLike the easily dazzled Grammy voters, I believe John Mayer has
\nreal talent and potential, but what he and his over-reaching
\nproducer have done with it here just doesn’t work for me.<\/p>\n
Squandered potential. Yep, that’s just the kind of thing that
\nmakes me cranky.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":26316,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[6814],"rating":[5619],"class_list":["post-37544","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-john-mayer","rating-rating-c"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37544"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37544\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37544"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}