On easily the night’s best and most passionate track, Mayer demands attention by effortlessly going from loud to soft, aggressive to delicate, and, most importantly, sincere to promising. Still, it isn’t until “Out of My Mind” that Mayer finally sheds any candy-coated stereotype he may have earned before. From the opening notes of Memphis Slim’s “Everyday I Have the Blues”, to the rapid-fire take on Hendrix’s “Wait Until Tomorrow”, and even the traditional, 1955-esque blues original “Come When I Call”, Mayer seems more loose and more fun than ever. That’s why the album’s best efforts undoubtedly come from his trio’s set. And at this point in his career, it’s not to hear another bubblegum treat - it’s to hear him shred.
Rather than forcing more acoustic tricks on the crowd, he knows exactly why the majority of the crowd stuck around. Not even Continuum’s tear-jerking “Stop This Train”, or a pseudo-twanged-up version of “Daughters” holds the quick acoustic set together.īut that’s OK, because for Mayer, age has brought intelligence as well. That’s probably why the first five offerings - featuring only Mayer, an acoustic guitar, and a few friends on select tracks - are the album’s least interesting and most expected (hey, you got to keep at least some of those sorority sisters around, right?). And that would be fine, if he hadn’t begun his career in coffee shops and frat parties, whispering lyrics about failed relationships and beautiful girls. It takes the casual fan through what Mayer describes as the “three different incarnations of my music”. But even after that, it was hard not to picture a 19-year-old sorority pin-up prancing around the quad, bellowing the bridge to Ray Charles’s “I’ve Got a Woman”, while texting her girls about how awful Biology was. It was an obvious - albeit necessary - attempt at nailing down the true fans, and even gaining some newer, older ones. Sure, he may have proved his fruition with his Trio’s 2005 effort Try!. Really, you aren’t even supposed to know what a quarter-life crisis is when you can’t legally drink in the States. In fact, it was the introduction of such a young man’s gravity that made us pay attention. After all, songs like “No Such Thing” and “Your Body Is a Wonderland” aren’t the reasons we were listening back in 2001.
JOHN MAYER WHERE THE LIGHT IS FULL FULL
But it is a recording that proves Mayer himself has come full circle. Where the Light Is isn’t Any Given Thursday, Mayer’s first attempt at a live album. Oh, what eight years and the blues can do to a young man. In are the matured twenty-somethings, the credibly over-qualified backing musicians, and just about anybody who still cares about making sure a generation has an actual, real, live guitar hero that isn’t just a videogame craze. Gone are the screaming teens and predictable Police covers. You see, what Johnny did was Johnny went and grew up.
“Go tell your friends / Go tell your friends, your stupid friends / Exactly / Exactly what Johnny did”, John Mayer croons on the bluesy “Out of My Mind”.
0 kommentar(er)
