Sob Rock Album Review
Happy Album Release Day, John Mayer! Thank you for your love letter to the ‘80s, it’s a phenomenal album and I love it!
Sob Rock Review
The album is growing on me and each time I listen to it I fall in love with it even more. I can’t wait to take it for a drive. When Mayer said “It’s time to love an album again,” I had no idea how right he’d be. Columbia has been advertising the crap out of it, which made me a little skeptical. Listening to Mayer talk about “Once Upon A Time in Hollywood” hitting him harder than he thought put a smile on my face. I loved that movie, I loved how it was Quentin Tarantino’s love letter to the late 60’s/early 70’s era, I saw it twice in theaters and it easily became one of my favorite Top 5 Movies.
“Sob Rock” sounds like an album you would have bought in the ‘80s, like if Mayer had a time machine, went back 1985 and put this record out, it would have been a hit and it sounds like that time period. While listening to it, I feel like I was a teen then which I wasn’t, I wasn’t born until 1985, but I feel like I should have been like 16, probably a little older for me to have seen The Beatles, but that’s another story/time plot in my before life that I won’t get into so for now I’m a 16 year-old kid giddy over her favorite musician’s new album.
“The idea of Sob Rock is that it might have been something that already happened, but when you go looking it’s not. The idea of Sob Rock is to implant false memories into your brain, that’s what it did for me” said Mayer in an interview with Zane Lowe. “Can you have memories of things that never happened to you? Can you go back in time to and synthesize a piece of work that’s so true to the era that when you hear it your brain goes ‘no, no, this exists, no, no, I’m going to find it and you can’t.”
So here’s how I feel about each song, I’m not good at describing music.
Last Train Home – This song gives me major Toto vibes and it should as Greg Phillinganes plays keys on it. Fave lyric: “I’m not a fallen angel, I just fell behind, I’m out of luck and I’m out of time.”
Shouldn’t Matter but It Does – This is my favorite song off the album and one of my favorite songs he’s written. There’s pain, there’s hurt, there’s regret. “You shoulda been sad instead of being so fucking mean.” Using “fucking” in this line gives it the same depth of “bitch” in SDIABR. I just love it. Fave lyrics: “Now the road keeps rolling on forever, and the years keep pulling us apart, we lost something, I still wonder what it was” and “I shouldn’t leave you messages in every little song.”
New Light – The song fits the album and at first I wasn’t sure if it would b/c it was kind of out there back in 2018. It lightens the mood coming after SMBID.
Why You No Love Me – I like the music on this one. I think it’s going to be one that has to grow on me though, lyrically. It’s also been stuck in my head all morning.
Wild Blue – Good transition from “Why You No Love Me,” dig the music, like a late 70’s vibe, loving the guitar solo. On the Clubhouse chat last night Mayer said he had the music for this song before he had the lyrics and that he called it “August 6th” b/c he didn’t know what to call it. I jumped off my couch and said “That’s my birthday.” So this song has just moved up to the top, lol. I know it has nothing to do w/my birthday, but August 6th is like a regular date even for someone w/a b-day on it so I was like “Whoa.” Fave lyrics: “I’m walking through wilderness, and living off the loneliness.” “All the tears I meant to cry, dance across the evening sky.” “I found myself when I lost you.” And you’ll never know, the unlikely beauty in letting you go.”
Shot in the Dark – This one is light and airy in a fun way, loving the keys, the beginning sounds like it’s the start of an ‘80s John Hughes film. I’m not going to comment on the cheesy video he released since it’s the next single. Fave lyrics: “And I wonder what it all means, strange conversation with you in my dreams, and I don’t know what I’m gonna do, I’ve loved seven other women and they all were you.”
Guess I Just Feel Like – Another song we’ve had since 2018 and it goes w/this album so well. I also think in this pandemic after life we’re living in this one says how we all felt in 2020 and still even feel in 2021 It means more now than it did in 2018/2019, you know?
Til the Right One Comes – The music is different on this one, this is one of the songs where I feel like I’ve heard it before, even though I haven’t and it’s driving me crazy! It gives me old school country vibes and seems like it could have been on “Paradise Valley.” Mayer said he wrote this song about his reason why he’s not married yet and had other people “I feel that too” and he said “I though it was just me.” I relate to some of these lyrics, my Mom turns 60 next year and is wanting grandkids and thinks my brother is her only hope at that. She wants him to meet someone and to her I’m a loss cause at this point. So when someone asks why I’m single I’m just going to go tell them to listen to this song. Fave lyrics: “Some people ’round here been calling me, “Crazy”, some people say I’ll never love someone, that’s alright, give it time and maybe, I prove you wrong when the right one comes.”
Carry Me Away – I loved this song when it was released in 2019, loved the video and the carefree simple lyrics. I think in a time of the pandemic and now getting back to living this new normal life, this song is very much relatable. Mayer said he after he released this in 2019 he felt like there wasn’t enough music so he went back and tidied it up. Fave lyrics: “I want someone, to make some trouble, been way too safe, inside my bubble, take me out and keep me up all night, let me live on the wilder side of the light.”
All I Want Is To Be With You – Total Springsteen vibes and tone. Like in another life, this one belongs to Springsteen, which I think is a huge compliment to Mayer. Another song I feel like I’ve heard before even though I haven’t. Good job at creating these false memories, Mayer. Fave lyrics: “Dancing alone to déjà vu.”