🤘🏻Sob Rock: John Mayer's homage to the 80s
Yesterday, John Mayer released his long-awaited 8th studio album called Sob Rock, which is his self-proclaimed tribute to the decade of soft rock music of the 80s
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Happy Weekend everyone!
43-Year-old American Singer-Songwriter and 7-time Grammy-winning Pop Star- John Mayer, released his 8th Studio album yesterday titled ‘Sob Rock’.
And boy did the Internet not fail to disappoint.
An evident throwback to the decade of the 80s; symbolized by soft rock music of iconic artists such as U2, Toto, Dire Straits, and Lionel Ritchie among many others, Mayer has wowed fans with his latest work.
Speaking to Apple Music‘s popular curator Zane Lowe, earlier this week, Mayer recalled how, at the start of his career, he was told that his music was “not what’s hot”
“What I would love other people to understand is that there is no more reason to have to adhere to any given idea of cool.
Especially post-pandemic, which for the first time in anyone’s lives stopped the clock on the hyper-modern day trade of culture.”
Despite those initial hiccups, Mayer’s career has been anything but ‘not being hot’.
With 8 Studio albums and multiple platinum hits to his name, his record speaks for itself 👇🏻
🏆 7 Grammy Awards
💽 16 Million plus Albums Sold
🎧 2 Billion plus streams on Spotify
💰 $70 Million Net Worth
📲 10 Million plus Followers on Social Media
Having been active in the music industry with his classic fusion of Pop and Blues Rock since 2001, Mayer’s first 2 studio albums—Room for Squares (2001) and Heavier Things (2003)—performed well commercially and achieved multi-platinum status 📀
However, over the course of his two-decade-long stint as a commercial artist, Mayer has had to constantly face public scrutiny over his personal life and following a string of controversial interviews, withdrew from the public eye to focus on his music around 2010.
His highs and lows in his personal and professional life, over the years, have clearly acted as a source of inspiration for his latest album.
Mayer continued in the Apple Music interview by explaining how he applied that way of thinking to the creative process behind ‘Sob Rock’, saying:
“I made a record that, to me at the time – only in a way to coax something out of me that I wouldn’t have normally done –‘shitpost’ a record. It’s called ‘Sob Rock’ because it’s a ‘shitpost’.
“But more importantly, it’s what I thought was a ‘shitpost’ – and this gets down to where artists sit in front of you and play you what they think is their garbage.
And you go: ‘That’s the best thing I ever heard you play.’
Despite him proclaiming that the album has been a shitpost from his end, the marketing of ‘Sob Rock’ by his label ‘Columbia Records’ is something that has blown fans and critics alike, away.
Short clips like the one below which show Mayer driving a Porsche 911 GT3 around the ocean in Los Angeles, made people instantly nostalgic for the classic 80s vibe 👇🏻
Mayer added in the Apple Music interview that he never wants to become an artist “who runs out of paint colors and begins to just make the same songs over and over again”.
“I’m only interested if I get to put new paints on the canvas, and my way of doing it at this time was: literally no one’s looking.
This one’s called ‘Sob Rock’ because you just would never have imagined that was the name of the record.
And I’m going to go so deep into my fantasy. I live, half of me is in this fantasy all the time now, especially as I’m watching the promo stuff come together.”
I must admit, I was never really much of a John Mayer fan 🤷♂️
But over the course of this week, having followed the build-up to the launch of his album yesterday, and listening to the entirety of its 40 minutes long 10 track piece, it is clear why he is regarded as one of the best songwriters of his generation 🤯
Check out the most popular one-off of his latest album yet- ‘Last Train Home’, now 👇🏻
This should be the perfect soundtrack to your weekend plans 🍻
That’s it for the day, and we’ll talk again next week!
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