John Mayer - where to begin?

[Power King]

This song = quality in my opinion:

[youtube]WEgUUTkqRRQ[/youtube]

I've continuously heard he's a talented blues guitarist.

Couple that with his supposed good live performance ability, song-writing, and my love for the above song, and I want to get into his music more.

So John Mayer fans, which one album do I need to listen to first off in order to appreciate John Mayer at his musical core?

 

[DeadlyAkkuret]

I would have posted sooner, but I listened to that song twice first. Sometimes it's hard to tell when you're being serious PK, but if you are then I agree it's a quality song.

I haven't listened to his albums, but maybe I will now.

 

[UpForGrabs]

Haha, as a non-fan, I'd suggest you start far away and keep walking in the opposite direction.

But maybe that's just me

 

[DeadlyAkkuret]

I like this version more

[YOUTUBE]IibWn7lBjQg[/YOUTUBE]

 

[Power King]

^Mad intro, love the way the drummer kicked in, and the jam session breakdown in the 4th minute was awesome.

 

[TheStinger]

I saw him at the Gov here in Adelaide just before he blew up big. Nice intimate gig and he really is a very talented guitarist. He has some weird facials when he sings which can be distracting but he is without doubt a solid musician. Has a lot of respect for old school blues which is good too.

 

[KaLL]

I recommend his John Mayer Trio album, "Try!" just his raw bluesy pop. Followed closely by "Continuum", an incredibly smoothe album. Production on it is amazing.

Also vote for The OK Festival which he's playing at

 

[Carlos]

I have his live Trio album, but admittedly thats only because Steve Jordan, who is possibly the funkiest drummer to ever walk the planet, plays on it, with Pino Paladino delighting on bass duties. As an album its a reasonably good listen.

Mayer can play, but tunes wise i really can take or leave him. And the voice has 1 gear and after a while becomes very meh.

But his bands are usually very tasty players whichs means i can tolerate him.

 

[La Dispute]

Nah.

I'm a xenophobe.

 

[anti_]

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[DeadlyAkkuret]

He has some weird facials when he sings which can be distracting

What are you talking about?

 

[TheStinger]

What are you talking about?

I dunno, I must have been sitting in the wrong spot and got a weird angle of his face. Nothing wrong here, my mistake.

 

[Ninty]

I love John Mayer and all of his albums are good, his new one is out on the 13th.

I recommend starting with Room For Squares.

 

[Power King]

Cheers for the advice so far guys

I just saw this performance on youtube, loved it

[youtube]s7sFW8CWJJY[/youtube]

Sounds like I need to get into norah jones too.

 

[Bombers_Forever]

I am with Ninty. Room for Squares was his best album in my view - simple songs like Neon acoustic were good.

I didn't particularly like Continuum - the soul part of his music wasn't that exciting, although 'Say' is probably my favourite song of his. The Try album was probably the way he should have played soul, a real band and a bit of 'rock' about the music went well.

 

[mr_cellotape]

He's an atrocious songwriter. Someone with his guitar chops is capable of more.

Only decent thing he's done (and as Carlos said, the quality of the rhythm section has alot to do with it):
[youtube]9YfYBudVXXw[/youtube]

 

[KaLL]

He's an atrocious songwriter. Someone with his guitar chops is capable of more.

Only decent thing he's done (and as Carlos said, the quality of the rhythm section has alot to do with it):
[youtube]9YfYBudVXXw[/youtube]

Or not. He's one of the best lyricist going around IMO, and musically can write very catchy tunes. His latest single though, is admittedly very poor.

 

[Power King]

Whether you like or dislike his song-writing, I would like to know if that is based on his song-writing technique, or the subject matter of his songs.

 

[La Dispute]

Whether you like or dislike his song-writing, I would like to know if that is based on his song-writing technique, or the subject matter of his songs.

Regardless of whatever it is, he just isn't a great songwriter.

He's a neat guitarist and a funny guy though

 

[Power King]

^Seems like someone that can take the piss out of himself and also speaks his mind.

Disagree with the first sentence though - just because you don't like the content of someone's music doesn't mean they aren't able to put across a message in a well-written way (metaphors, imagery etc).

 

[PaddleFoot]

Got a great feel for those Hendrix-inspired R&B chords and trills

[youtube]8WEC5UN9cqE[/youtube]


.. and this has got some scorching riffing ..

[youtube]9gkTF-vZ_bM[/youtube]

 

[Rustin Cohle]

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The guy wearing the Star Wars shirt looks like Marc Murphy.

 

[Bombers_Forever]

OK, so I have got the Battle Studies album and I am listening to it for the first time. I must say I am impressed so far - I expected a lot worse for some reason.

How to describe it - it is a mix of Heavier Things and Continuim. There are some great soul rifts and the music is 'slower' than the up beat earlier pop songs.

The funny thing is I think "Who Says" is a weak song - can't understand why it was chosen as the first single. There is no standout song - some albums have one or two songs that really blow it out of the water but this album doesn't have it. I would have to say my favourite is Heartbreak Warfare but that might change with more listens.

I can say this is probably not his best album and I can see the critics panning it but I think overall it is probably a 7/10.

 

[crownie]

really enjoying his latest stuff.

He is releasing 4 songs a month at the moment, seems to have gone back to a vibe similar to his first few albums.

 

[Cruyff14]

really enjoying his latest stuff.

He is releasing 4 songs a month at the moment, seems to have gone back to a vibe similar to his first few albums.

Not really rating them to be honest. Only like one of them, the others are very avg.