This is it.

May 24

Let’s all talk about how disappointing John Mayer’s new album is.

Ever since Shadow Days was released as the first single, I have been preparing myself for the inevitable disappointment that Born and Raised would be. I have been a John Mayer fan for as long as I can remember but this album just doesn’t do it for me. In my mind there are two good songs and ten skippable songs.

The album starts out with “Queen of California” which I think may just be the best song on the album. Its laid back while still managing to stick a little blues in when its needed. Part of me hates this song though because it leads you to believe that the rest of Born and Raised will be just as good. It isn’t.

The next few tracks have no appeal to me. “Age of Worry” is repetitive and sounds like it should be sung at mass. I’m completely indifferent to “Shadow Days” as I’ve had time to hear it multiple times leading up to the release and had no feelings either way at any time. It’s not a bad song but its not a good song either.

In my opinion, “Speak For Me” is one of the weakest songs on Born and Raised. It sounds almost lazy to me. The song ends up feeling almost pitiful as Mayer just sings (repetitively again) about trying to grasp the loneliness of the world we live in and asking anyone to, “Show me something I can be/Play a song that I can sing/Make me feel as I am free/Someone come speak for me” Speak for your damn self. He also sings the line “I’m not mad about it” over and over again. If you aren’t that mad about it, why write this song?

The other good track on the album is “Something Like Olivia”. Its good because it sticks to the laidback blues that Mayer certainly knows his way around. Everyone knows the feeling of admiring a specific type of girl and this song nails it.

I could write a comment on the rest of the songs off of Born and Raised, but I won’t. The rest of the album is uneventful and frankly I don’t really fell like forcing myself to listen to them again. This album on the whole tries to be too laidback, while being slightly country yet still bluesy and trying to emulate Bob Dylan with the story-style songwriting and I think therein lies the problem. This album just tries to be too much. Maybe I didn’t like most of this album because it reminded me of Dylan who I absolutely can not stand (I know that may be blasphemy these days but its true. Bob Dylan’s music does absolutely nothing for me. I can understand how people enjoy but I will never enjoy it myself.) But overall I think too much harmonica, not enough guitar sums it up pretty well.

John Mayer seems to have changed his style with each album. He found fame with the acoustic pop on Room for Squares, added to it with electric pop on Heavier Things, ran off and changed my life with the Trio on Try!, amazed everyone with the heavily polished Continuum, and then underwhelmed with the underproduced but still lovable Battle Studies. I’ve loved the music since day one but sadly Born and Raised is the first flat out miss for me. And you know what? It doesn’t change anything. I will always enjoy the rest of his music. This one just wasn’t for me.

I’m sure people will love this album from top to bottom and more power to them, I just won’t be one of them.