Posts Tagged ‘John Mayer’

In Limbo
Hot 100 Roundup—1/5/13

Wednesday, January 2nd, 2013

In real life, this is the last Hot 100 of 2012, not the first of 2013, but since Billboard starts and ends their year ten days ahead of the rest of the world, in Chartland we’re already into the new year. Trying to sort all of this out would be as confusing as straightening out the dates in 19th century Russian history, before they adopted the Gregorian calendar; it isn’t worth the trouble, and it would make my head hurt. So even though these will be officially listed as hitting the chart in 2013, it was actually 2012, though if you don’t care to remember that it doesn’t matter. A place in limbo is all these records deserve anyway.

Cassadee Pope—“Cry”
#60

Kid Cudi—“King Wizard”
#95

Cudi is smart, but he isn’t a genius. “King Wizard” sounds like the foundation for a brilliant track, the concept and the music are perfectly meshed and in place, but Cudi doesn’t seem to know where to go after that. He’s still thinking his way through instead of letting his instincts take flight. For all his bragging, much of which is earned, I’m not sure he trusts himself. “King Wizard” never steps over the line into pretension or egocentric folly, but it doesn’t go anywhere, either.

Ke$ha—“C’mon”
#99

“C’mon” has more life to it than “Die Young”, but it still sounds rote, and Ke$ha appears to have little interest in making this sort of record anymore. It’s not just her performance—it’s the words, the music, everything. All the touches and details that made “Tik-Tok” and “Sleazy” such enjoyable records have disappeared. She’s painting by numbers, and she isn’t even trying to color outside the lines.

Casey James—“Crying On A Suitcase”
#100

“Crying On a Suitcase” isn’t a bad song—the chorus is standard issue but I like the tumbling, headlong rush of the verses—and in the hands of a good singer it could be a decent record. But Casey James isn’t a good singer: his voice is thin, and he doesn’t seem to have enough control of his breath to give those verses the flow they need to come across with their full power. I appreciate his trying to avoid the John Mayerish trap he could easily fall into (and that the producers of American Idol encouraged), but he needs to find another way.

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Attempted Comeback Week
Hot 100 Roundup—8/4/12

Wednesday, August 8th, 2012

Jason Aldean—“Take A Little Ride”
#12
If it weren’t for Brantley Gilbert, Aldean would be the king of country overkill, so it’s nice to hear him tone it down a notch (half a notch, anyway) on this ode to driving around in a pickup with his girl and watching the (ahem) corn grow. I was irritated at first by the news that he had altered the lyrics to match his new endorsement contract with Coors, but aside from setting a lousy precedent I’m not sure it matters. For one thing, Aldean doesn’t have much in the way of artistic credibility to lose. Second, this song is more of an an advertisement for Chevy trucks and the stereotypical rural lifestyle than it is for Coors. The beer is nothing but set decoration. I do wonder, though, what kind of deal he has with Chevrolet.

No Doubt—“Settle Down”
#34
Even if you assume that the subdued Bollywood string section at the beginning and the dub section at the end will be cut for radio airplay, this is still a weird comeback record. In some ways, such as the obvious influence of M.I.A. and the occasional reggae tinges, it tries to be forward looking and a continuation of Gwen Stefani’s cut and paste solo work. But it also sounds laid-back, soft where Stefani’s stuff was all hard edges and in your face. She talks tough, but the music doesn’t back her up. Is that the band’s fault, or does Stefani not care anymore? Or did the explosion of weirdly dressed, brash pop divas that appeared in the wake of “Hollaback Girl” make her try too hard to keep up? Whatever the case, this feels more like an organized retreat than a comeback.

T.I.—“Go Get It”
#77
Is there anything more boring than a successful rapper bragging about how rich and comfortable he is? At least when Jay-Z and Kanye West do it you get the feeling that they’re aware of the illusory nature of it all. They wonder why they made it and others didn’t, wonder about the racial and cultural implications, and sometimes sound defensive about it (especially West), well aware that luck was a major element in their elevation. Rappers like T.I., though, take it for granted, or don’t think about it at all. T.I. worked hard. (Right?) He paid his dues. (Uh-huh) Now he does a reality show (what?), and lives the easy life. The fact that his dues consisted of doing time for illegally buying all the crap he brags about owning on this record is an irony that either escapes him or he doesn’t consider important. He still has his talent, still has the flow and the gift of wordplay, but it all comes so easy to him now that he doesn’t take the time to think through what he’s saying or do anything that would challenge him or his audience. This is the street rapper’s version of easy listening, if such a thing is possible.

The Killers—“Runaways”
#78
After a few listens, the Springsteen influence seems to fade (though of course it never completely goes away), and you realize this is a real Killers song: anthemic, with a good beat, and Brandon Flowers trying his damnedest to convince you that what he’s singing about is important. That’s the problem. Flowers’s sense of the importance of what he’s doing creates a barrier between him and whatever he’s singing about. You never once get the feeling that he knows or understands anything about the struggles of working class kids with children of their own, no matter how hard he tries to empathize with them. Springsteen sings about the working class because that’s where he grew up, and though he avoided the same fate as his characters, he came close to not making it, and knew lots of people who didn’t. Flowers sounds like he chose this subject almost at random, and the difference is like reading a story by an author who has actually lived an experience and one who’s trying to imagine what that experience would be like. In most cases, only geniuses can get away with that. Flowers is talented, and he’s smart. But he isn’t a genius, and he shouldn’t try to be.

Dave Matthews Band—“Mercy”
#95
As someone who has never cared for Matthews’s music, I’m almost afraid to admit how much I enjoy this record. There’s less emphasis on showing off the band’s chops, which for the first time gives you an idea of how good they can be (the percussionist almost steals the entire record). It also sounds like Matthews has been spending some time listening to Curtis Mayfield. The influence isn’t direct—no borrowed melody lines or chord changes—but the atmosphere and overall feel are the same. The lyrics are the usual well-meaning mush, but at least they show some connection to reality. They’re so down to earth in their call to action, in fact, that I wonder if this might be intended as an answer record to John Mayer’s “Waiting On the World to Change” (that was a while ago, I know, but in the slow-moving universe Mayer and Matthews inhabit these things take time). Of course, that could just be me savoring the ridiculous idea of a battle of the bands between the kings of easy listening, blues-tinged pop. Why, they might even have to raise their voices.

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Confusion
Hot 100 Roundup—3/24/12

Monday, April 2nd, 2012

John Mayer—“Shadow Days”
#42
John Mayer would like you to know that after crashing on his hotel room floor and doing something despicable to an unnamed young lady (no guesses, please), that he has gotten over his shadow days and realized he’s actually a pretty decent guy. He celebrates this marvel of self-deceit/congratulation with a number of tasty, meaningless solos (including one that channels the spirit of George Harrison, or at least his slide guitar). Even when some guys learn they never learn.

M83—“Midnight City”
#74
This is a classy and in some ways striking piece of electronic pop, but it’s also packed with musical and thematic clichés, and its mixed up evocation of 80s pop and dystopian sci-fi cityscapes —as if Blade Runner had been scored by A-ha—results in a curious but less than compelling pastiche. I think they want to be noir. They’re not.

Karmin—“Brokenhearted”
#84
If this song, which is catchy and in several ways not terrible, were performed by some Disney ingénue, or even someone in the Glee Cast, I would find it tolerable, maybe even enjoyable. But it’s not. It’s performed by a couple of college-trained musicians in their late twenties who sound above it all, eternally pleased with themselves, and lacking in any sense of what pop music is for or what it provides both for its performers and for its audience. They’re prigs, and their bouncy but lifeless music is better proof of it than anything I could say, so I never intend to mention them again.

Zac Brown Band—“No Hurry”
#96
In addition to whatever he mentions in this song, another thing that Zac Brown isn’t in a hurry about is slowing the flow of currency from his cash cow of an album. Hence this fifth single, which is even more boring than the four that came before it. He says he’s in no hurry to stop raising hell, too, but what I’d like to know is when he’s going to start.

Trey Songz—“Sex Ain’t Better Than Love”
#97
Sex may not be better than love, but if this crawling tribute to true romance is any indication, it’s a lot more exciting and straightforward. I’m sure Songz wanted this to burn with sincere eroticism, but the arrangement is so weird and sluggish that more than anything else he sounds confused. The middle eight is one of the oddest things you’ll ever hear, and makes no sense in the context of the song. I’m not sure what Songz was trying to get at; I don’t think he knew, either.

Listen on Spotify

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New this week—12/13/09

Tuesday, December 15th, 2009

Glee Cast—”Last Christmas”
#63
Unlike the other twenty (!!!) songs Glee has put on the Hot 100 this year, this one seems perfectly designed for the sort of bland vocal treatment the show specializes in. It is a Christmas song, after all, and considering how much breathy echo was layered onto Wham!’s original version, it was practically a Glee song already. Except for the intro to “Don’t Stop Believin’” (all the way back in the pilot), this is the best thing they’ve done. And I don’t care if I ever hear it again.

Daughtry—”After You”
#66
Blander even than Nickelback, and therefore less offensive. Also less interesting, which is a kind of negative achievement, I suppose. The only positive is that Chris Daughtry still makes me believe he’s singing to his wife. I just hope she doesn’t fall asleep in the middle of it.

Orianthi—”According To You”
#67
Conceptually, the guitar shredding on this Kelly Clarkson knock-off makes sense. The attitude she gets from her boyfriend is probably much like the attitude she gets from guys who don’t believe women can play lead guitar. Musically, though, it’s as empty and meaningless as most shredding for shredding’s sake, and decidedly out of place in a Kelly Clarkson knock-off. It would also help if she could sing anywhere near as well as she can play.

Nick Jonas & the Administration—”Who I Am”
#73
Anybody who calls this a country move has obviously never heard any country. It’s more like a John Mayer record with leaden lyrics and duller chord changes. Minus the bombast provided by his brothers, Jonas sounds overwrought and out of place, as if he had no idea who he was at all.

Timbaland Featuring Justin Timberlake—”Carry Out”
#75
I hate to get all PC all of a sudden, but I can’t think of anything more sexist than comparing a woman to food that, no matter how tasty it may be, is picked up largely because it demands nothing from the man but ready cash and doesn’t require any messy clean up. You know, like a prostitute? Serves them right that the record’s so dull.

Pitbull featuring Akon—”Shut It Down”
#85
Akon is supposed to provide the hook, but all he does is get in Pitbull’s way. Without him this could be one of the club jams of the year. It was nice of Pitbull to give the poor guy a break, I guess, but I look forward to a remix that’s all Pitbull and his harsh minimalist electronics, and no Akon at all.

Phoenix—”1901″
#90
For the life of me I cannot figure out the appeal of these Frenchmen. To me, they’re The Eagles of indie, inspired by of Montreal instead of Graham Parsons. Apparently their Grammy nomination for Best Alternative Album has generated enough buzz to get them into the Hot 100. Which is interesting, since their appearance on Saturday Night Live earlier this year couldn’t do it. Who knew the Grammies had such influence over alternative fans’ buying habits?

The Script—”Breakeven”
#96
Better than The Fray or OneRepublic, if only because they seem less self-involved and overwrought. But then, how good do you have to be to be better than The Fray or OneRepublic?

Toby Keith featuring Dave Koz, Marcus Miller & Arthur Thompson—”Cryin’ For Me (Wayman’s Song)”
#97
Whatever real emotion may be behind this song (the lyrics have their touching moments) is lost in Keith’s apparent ambition to crossover into Lite Jazz territory. Nothing like expanding that radio outreach.

Timbaland featuring Katy Perry—”If We Ever Meet Again”
#99
Timbaland’s M.O. these days appears to be applying his tried and true production techniques to current hit makers in the hope of not only generating hits but revving his own creative juices. So far, it doesn’t seem to be working on either count. Here he sounds almost desperate in his desire to do something new and interesting. The result is a bunch of cliches jammed together, and not very well either.

Brad Paisley—”American Saturday Night”
#100
Though the comparison may sound odd, it seems to me that Paisley is everything that John Mayer is supposed to be. An intelligent, daring, witty, unbelievably talented songwriter and guitarist (will somebody please put him on a stage with Richard Thompson? please?), who is also humble, self-deprecating, devoid of flash, and refuses to play down to his audience intellectually or emotionally. The difference is that, unlike Mayer, Paisley seems to be totally lacking in self-consciousness—he says what he wants to say, plays what he wants to play, and never for a moment worries about what people think of him. Whether or not this brilliant record, which in theme is the exact opposite of the xenophobic, jingoistic rants that have plagued country music for decades, will be a hit is of absolutely no interest to Paisley. It probably will be. He’ll appreciate it, and find it sort of funny in a way, but it won’t affect his music one way or the other. He takes things so easy that even those who admire him don’t seem to realize that he’s probably the greatest country musician of his generation. Here’s hoping he’s the most influential, as well.

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New this week—11/29/09

Sunday, November 29th, 2009

John Mayer
“Half of My Heart” (featuring Taylor Swift), #25
“Heartbreak Warfare”, #100
What bothers me about these records, both above average in execution, emotion, and intelligence—especially “Heartbreak Warfare”—is Mayer’s apparent inability not to wear his influences on his sleeve. “Half Of My Heart” not only borrows the easy heartbeat groove of Fleetwood Mac, but is layered with an almost embarrassingly accurate imitation of Lindsey Buckingham’s guitar, while “Heartbreak Warfare” is a barely disguised rewrite of U2′s “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For.” Considering the subject matter of both songs, the borrowing makes sense, but it also makes me wonder if Mayer has any musical identity that he truly feels is his own. Maybe “Half Of My Heart” is a reference to his music as well as his love life.

Glee Cast
“Lean On Me”, #50
“Don’t Stand So Close To Me/Young Girl”, #64
“I’ll Stand By You”, #73
“Endless Love”, #78
Welcome, to paraphrase Dylan, to the old folks home in the high school. For anyone who didn’t already believe that boomer culture is a dead issue, Glee is the ultimate proof—or the final nail. These kids aren’t singing their parent’s music, after all, they’re singing their grandparent’s music. There’s a certain amount of wit, I suppose, in pairing The Police with Gary Puckett and the Union Gap (though it’s unfair—not even Sting deserves to be chained to such deathless smarm), but the joke is lost in the blank earnestness of the performance. This might as well be Sing Along with Mitch or The Lawrence Welk Show for a new generation—once meaningful standards reduced to a level even lower than muzak. As glad as I am that Bill Withers and Chrissie Hynde will never have to work again unless they want to, they deserve better. We all deserve better. Even the people who actually buy this crap deserve better.

Alicia Keys—”Try Sleeping With A Broken Heart”
#58
Even at her best, and this is close, Alicia Keys makes what might be called R&B for home schoolers. She gets all the details right, down to the smallest nuance, but her music lacks the give and take, the rough and tumble of actual human contact, and it’s full of a self-importance bred of isolation. It’s as if she were building a museum of her emotions, displayed on pedestals behind glass, with dark velvet curtains and perfect lighting and little explanatory plaques for our edification.

Justin Bieber
“Down To Earth”, #79
“Bigger”, #94
“First Dance” (featuring Usher). #99
Four of the songs from his eight-track EP already having charted as singles, it only makes sense that the three others that are available as individual downloads (the eighth is technically an “album only” bonus cut) should chart as well. The first two are even blander than the singles, but “First Dance”, at least lyrically, is something else again. It’s the prom, you see, and there’s no one else on the dance floor, and their are no chaperones, and… “I promise I’ll be gentle, I know we gotta do it slowly” Bieber croons in his most seductive 15-year-old tones. “I couldn’t ask for more, we’re rockin’ back and fourth,” he says later, and then assures the young thing that “our parents will never know”. If both consenting partners are under age, is it still considered statuatory rape? And people think Adam Lambert is controversial.

Rihanna featuring Jeezy—”Hard”
#80
It is hard, and it gets even harder with Jeezy’s rap, which, unlike so many guest spots, lifts the song to a higher level, and is immediately followed by Rihanna’s best-ever vocal performance. She sounds so enraged she’s incoherent. Better this than the self-pity and mixed messages of “Russian Roulette”, not to mention the rest of Rated R.

Melanie Fiona—”It Kills Me”
#88
Like Jazmine Sullivan, Fiona sounds as if she’s immersed in early ’70s soul, specifically of the Chi-Lites variety. She’s more emotionally restrained than Sullivan, though, her music less zaftig, so to speak. Which makes her a little less interesting and more generic, at least in ’70s terms. Today, the sound of this record stands out, but back in ’73 it would have been lucky to make top 30 on the R&B chart.

50 Cent—”The Invitation”
#97
The good news is that 50 Cent sounds interested again—this is as tough and angry as it ought to be. The bad news is that he’s still 50 Cent, and apparently the only way he could revive his interest was by going over the same ground he and thousands of others have worn down already. Not bad for retro-gangsta, but it doesn’t go anywhere, largely because it never had anywhere to go in the first place.

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New this week

Wednesday, October 28th, 2009

John Mayer—”Who Says”
#17
I’ve always thought of Mayer as a likeable but pretentious boob, a well-meaning, highly skilled guy who let his good taste and sense of importance get in the way of his talent. Here, however, he leans back, lights up, channels the Paul Simon of Paul Simon—even stealing a bit of melody from the master—and makes his simple case for legalization without once overplaying his hand or being anything but charming. Even his caddishness is charming, something he’s never managed—at least with me—before. If he wasn’t such a goof he’d be dangerous.

Chamillionaire—”Good Morning”
#40
Why do rappers think people hate them for being successful? Nobody cares if you’re successful, what they care about is whether or not success is going to turn you into the sort of guy who takes over two years to produce a record that turns out to be a lazy, self-satisfied knock at the people who you think are hating on you, when in reality they’ve barely noted your existence. The only smart thing about this record is that, by using the Tom Petty sample, Chamillionaire doesn’t need to worry about Weird Al turning this into a lame parody of Southern California excess—he’s already beaten him to it.

Glee Cast
“Keep Holding On”, #56
“No Air”, 65
This joke gets thinner every week. Bad songs badly sung.

Wonder Girls—”Nobody”
#76
I like the girl group feel of this, especially the high harmonies after the chorus, but it isn’t much of a song, and there’s not much to wonder at in the voices, either. The rap at the end is a terrible mistake; it sounds like it was pasted in from an entirely different song.

Carrie Underwood—”Mama’s Song”
#77
The only thing interesting about this country hokum is how little country there is in it, and how much r&b influence is floating around, especially in the strings, which echo Gene Page’s arrangements, and the background vocals. Underwood even tries to sound soulful once in a while, in an American Idolish sort of way.

Five For Fighting—Chances”
#83
Ah, those sincere young American males—can’t somebody make them shut up?

30 Seconds To Mars—”Kings and Queens”
#88
“The age of man is over”, they bellow, and they may be right (though I doubt it). Overwrought U2 imitators, however, go on forever.

Usher—”Papers”
#92
Far better than anything off his previous album, which suggests that Usher needs a little drama in his life to make decent records. Still not as good as the best stuff from Confessions, though, and all the drama in the world will probably never get great music out of him again.

New Boyz featuring Ray J—”Tie Me Down”
#97
The lyrics are jerky enough (saying you can’t be tied down because you’re only seventeen is funny, perfectly legitimate, and caddish all at the same time), but the music is generic and dull, and sounds more like a lame attempt to be Lil Wayne than anything new. The album is almost the definition of hit plus filler, but there’s far better stuff on it than this, which is some corporate stooge’s idea of the kind of music that will make them stars. Think about what happened to Lil Mama, New Boyz, and beware.

Miranda Lambert—”White Liar”
#98
Like all the best tracks on Revolution (and there are a lot of them), this is disarmingly simple on the surface, but packed with subtleties and with a depth that takes time to appreciate. Lambert no longer burns her cheating lover’s houses down or goes after them with a shotgun (though she does shoot one on the album). Instead she turns the tables on him and gets her revenge in a more practical and insidious way, by implying that she’s been cheating on him as well. The question is whether she’s telling him the truth now, or just getting back at him by making him think she’s cheating, and Lambert and her band leave the question drifting on the air, turning ambiguity and doubt into their own form of sweet revenge.

Kings of Leon—”Notions”
#99
Since I can only understand two or three words in the lyric, and the music does nothing to encourage me to look them up, I have no idea what notions are considered, or implied, or perhaps even acted on in this song. The music, though catchy in parts, is as slurred, mushy, and indistinct as the singing, which suggests that the Followill brothers not only don’t have much to say, but don’t understand what they do. Unfortunately, that’s probably a large part of their appeal.

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