Latest / The Tortured Fans Department / Ep. 66 - 'Continuum' - John Mayer (The Record Club - Volume 4)

Transcript

Ep. 66 - 'Continuum' - John Mayer (The Record Club - Volume 4) · The Tortured Fans Department

• 0:22
  SPEAKER_01: Hello, everybody, and welcome back to another episode of the Tortured Fans Department podcast.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_01: It is a record club episode.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_01: I am joined by my good friend, the man behind the music, Mr.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_01: Ryan Amade.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_01: Ryan, how are you?
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: Doing great.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: I got my Grateful Dead shirt on in honor of our boy who we're talking about today.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: Very excited to dive in.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: This is one of my all-time favorites.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: I know it's one of yours as well.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so this hopefully is just gonna be like, you know, an hour conversation between us talking about great music.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, limited preparation was required for this one.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_01: We kind of already had this one in the chamber ready to go.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_01: We are talking about John Mayer's continuum album.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_01: It, like you said, Ryan, is one of your favorites.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_01: It's one of my favorites.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_01: It's an all-time great, in my opinion.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_01: I could not be more excited to talk about it.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_01: So we're gonna kind of dive right in the layout, the format's gonna be the same as always.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_01: We'll do some background on the artist and the album.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_01: We'll get into the track-by-track breakdown, then we'll give you our overall takeaways and a score to round things out.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_01: This album's special, and it comes from a special artist in both of our lives.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_01: I think there's a lot more than meets the eye with John Mayer.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_01: He's a person who I feel like most casual fans will associate with a certain song or two, and that's not really a true representation of him as an artist.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_01: He's often a bit misunderstood.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_01: I feel like me and you go to bat for him and champion his work a lot in our daily lives.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm excited to get this one on the record, speak it into existence.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_01: Let's start with our familiarity with him.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_01: We said he's one of our favorite artists.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_01: When did you become a fan?
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_01: How many times have you seen him?
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_01: That sort of thing.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think we had a conversation about this earlier, but uh Room for Squares was a regular album, one of those kind of car albums that mom and dad were playing in the front seat.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: Thank God they had good music taste because that was just an absolute banger.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: His first real album and just what I became familiar with.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, for a long time, John Bayman was no such thing, right?
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: In my head, that is what he was.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: That Room for Squares album really kind of defined that for me.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: Then, you know, as time progresses, time moves on, we get through a couple more albums, this becomes kind of the main sound, right?
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: But first and foremost, let's not forget, John Mayer is a native of Fairfield, Connecticut.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: 20 minutes up the road from myself.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: Seems like a theme on this show, talking about great music coming out of a small little community in Connecticut.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but anyway, I saw John Mayer for the first time in high school.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: Phillip Phillips opened for him up in Hartford, Connecticut.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: Have seen him twice since and absolutely have loved every second of it.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: Wish I could see him more, wish he toured more.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: But that is my kind of origin story from when I was young to becoming a fan, seeing him in high school, and from from there on out.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: What about you?
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we will get into the artist background, Ryan.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_01: Of course, I had the Connecticut facts ready to go for the next section.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_01: Sorry, I jumped, I jumped in.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_01: It's fine.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_01: I know you're excited.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_01: I know you're excited.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_01: I am pretty similar.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_01: John Mayer has been probably my favorite artist for a real long time.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_01: Since really hearing no such thing and Room for Squares, that was kind of my introduction to him, and it drew me in, and I became a diehard fan almost immediately.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_01: The Room for Squares CD was stuck in my first ever car.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_01: It was stuck in that CD player for so long that it was just all that I listened to, to and from work each day in the summer, just a perfect windows-down ride cruise control type album.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_01: And then that led me to becoming the big fan.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_01: I did see that same tour you referenced in high school where Phil Phillips opened.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_01: I saw him at the Barclay Center in Brooklyn.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_01: Katy Perry came out and sang a song with him.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_01: It was when they were dating.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_01: So that was that was exciting.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_01: Then we shared an experience together in college where I think we've told the story on the podcast before, but it's worth mentioning here as well.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_01: We bought last row seats in Philadelphia.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_01: I think it was at the Wells Fargo Center at the time.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_01: And we're in the second level of a basketball arena, so it's just still a pretty good seat.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_01: We're staring down the barrel of John.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_01: We're just in the last possible row.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_01: And we're standing up next to two ladies who we did not know, but we're just kind of all vibing, dancing, having a good time.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_01: And this lady with a camera around her neck, she makes contact with me first because I was sitting nearest the end.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_01: And she was just like, Hey, do you have a second?
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_01: And she called me over to the end of the row, and I was like, Yeah, I thought we were doing something wrong.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, me too.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_01: And she was like, Do you and your friends want to follow me and get a better seat, basically?
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, uh yeah.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_01: So I immediately wave over to you, and I guess the two girls as well tagged along.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_01: And we're following this woman, and she just kept walking closer and closer to the stage, Ryan.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_01: And next thing you know, she dropped a dead first row right next to Johnny for the rest of the show.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_01: I think that was in the second song, and it turned out to be one of the best concert experiences of all time.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: The coolest thing that's ever happened to me at a concert by far.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: Do you remember what song he was playing?
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, it was off of that album, The Search for Everything.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_01: Um Changing?
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_01: What was it?
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_01: Up nailed it.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: It was, I remember what we went out into the the core, the concourse, and then as we entered in in the first section, he's ripping the solo of changing, and we're just getting closer.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: Like it was just this like dramatic moment, yeah.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: Special, special stuff.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: That was the second time I saw him, and then the third time I saw him was in uh Austin on the solo tour like two years ago.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: But yeah.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: Have you seen him since then?
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_01: After that, I saw him in Minneapolis as well on a solo tour.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_01: So John is obviously one of our favorites.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_01: A bit about his background and introduction to music, kind of fascinating.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_01: I I knew some of the story, I don't know that I knew the whole thing.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_01: He was born in 1977 in Bridgeport, Connecticut.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_01: Ryan, as you alluded to.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_01: His father was a high school principal, his mother was a middle school English teacher.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_01: Love to see that.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_01: Keeping it in academia.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_03: Love it.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_01: He was inspired to play guitar after seeing Marty McFly in Back to the Future as like a 12 or 13-year-old kid.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_01: So that's pretty cool.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_01: Just an origin story of you know what?
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_01: That looks pretty sick in the movie.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna pick it up myself.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: That's really funny.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_01: He became hyper fixated on guitar to the point that his parents became concerned about him.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_01: They actually, I believe, took him to see a psychiatrist, saying this is kind of like concerning how into guitar and music he is.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_01: He got a cassette from his neighbor, it was Stevie Ray Vaughn.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_01: That immediately became one of his biggest influences.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_01: He eventually goes to the College of Music at Berkeley and stayed a couple semesters, I think maybe two or three he lasted, before dropping out with his friend Clay Cook and moving to Atlanta to start a little two-man band called the Lo-Fi Masters.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_01: Before eventually they split up and went their separate ways, leading John Mayer to start his solo career.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_01: That career, we will be talking about the third studio album today, continuum.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_01: Before that, he put out an EP Inside Wants Out, and then the two albums we talked about, Room for Squares and Heavier Things.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: You talked about Clay Cook.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: Can you tell me what band Clay Cook plays in?
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: No clue.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: The Zach Brown band?
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: Ever heard of him?
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_01: Wow, I did not know that.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: He's the guitarist of the Zach Brown band.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_01: It's interesting too because Clay Cook cited at the time that he and John had different ideas for the musical futures.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_01: He thought John wanted to go a more pop route, and Clay Cook ends up in a country band.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_01: So that's funny.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_00: That is cool that the it's funny too, the drop out of Berkeley thing.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I feel like we talked about this, but like none of them make it through.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: None of the good ones make it through.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: They all stop.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: They go for a little bit, get what they need, and then just get out of there and become legends.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you want to be loosely attached to art school.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_01: You don't want to be a person who graduates art school.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_01: A graduate.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, no.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_01: Just go meet some really creative people, shoot the shit with one another, get some ideas, and get on out.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_01: That seems to be the that seems to be the way.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: Worked for a couple of our boys, but yeah, that's awesome.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so you mentioned and you mentioned that the couple albums before and the even the EP too.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: I know we're big fans of Comfortable off that EP, one of his greatest songs ever.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: But yeah, this this to me, I mean, we'll get to it, but is is the the pinnacle.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: And so I'm I'm I'm pumped to get into it.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_01: And this is very much his breakout album as well onto the main stage.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_01: This was a change in sound for him.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_01: It's a completely different sound than Room for Squares.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_01: We saw glimpses into this in heavier things, but I really think this is where John finds himself and his music.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_01: This album was recorded in 2005 and released in 2006.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_01: It was recorded in different studios in LA, New York City, and Memphis.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_01: And it was produced by Steve Jordan, who is a big part of all of John's music.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_01: He plays drums almost anytime you see John Mayer, excluding Dead and Company, Steve Jordan will be next to him playing on the drum kit.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: I wish he played in Dead and Company too.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_00: Steve Jordan is amazing.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, as a drummer, my my drumming community will appreciate this.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: But his, I mean, it it his pocket is just so insane.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: He's not going to do anything like crazy flashy.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_00: He's not your Neil Purt, your Carter Boatford, your kind of like big flashy guys.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: But Steve Jordan, like, when you talk about groove and pocket, like, there's not many better than him.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: See, that's good inside baseball knowledge from you there, Ryan.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: I try, I try.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: But then to think that he produces too, like, not only is he playing drums, but the produ I mean, that's just like I mean, being able to do both of those is truly ridiculous.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, the production is quite a skill, too.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_01: This is one of the best produced pop rock albums ever, in my opinion.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_01: I think they just find a superior sound throughout.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_01: So a little more context about the album.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_01: All the songs were written by John Mayer himself.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_01: We do love to see that.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_01: He had some writers accompany him on Vultures, which was written by the John Mayer trio, which makes up of John Mayer himself, Steve Jordan, and then the legend Pino Paladino, Pino who plays some bass.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_01: He that that trio, they've put out an album themselves called Try.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_01: That came out in 2005.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_01: This album was John Mayer's third solo album, and it's in 2006.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_01: So that kind of leads us to all of the information that went into the album being put out.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_01: Once it was out in the world, it was met with some mixed reviews at first.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_01: Metacritic gave it an average score of 67%.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_01: That's an absolute disgrace.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_01: Those people, if they're still employed all of these years later, they should not be.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_01: I think we need to go back in time and retroactively take money from them for 67%.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: What is this company?
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: What are they called?
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_01: Metacritic.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean, get out of here, please.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_01: And now there's a chance that was an average of everyone's scores on the site.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if that was including Ginger, but that's ridiculous.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_01: Basically, whoever gave it a failing grade needs to be put out of their misery.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_01: The album did pretty well commercially.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_01: It didn't reach some of the heights that we've talked about in other episodes of the record club, but it was nominated for best album that year at the Grammys, and it won both Best Pop Vocal Album and Best Male Pop Vocal Performance for the single Waiting on the World to Change.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: It's crazy that it's labeled under pop.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I I I get it to an extent a little bit.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, particularly for that song, a little bit, it kind of walks on the the the edge there, but like it feels like an insult to call it pop, but but you know, it is what it is.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_01: Pop is not a derogatory term.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_03: It's not like you're right, you're right, you're right, you're right, you're right.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_01: No, it's I do think it is weird that there's not a specific different like a pop rock genre because there's certainly if we're gonna pick one word to describe this album, I do agree.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_01: I don't think pop is one that comes to mind.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'm curious who the other nominees were.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: I I may while you're talking, I may do some digging here.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, the last thing I wanted to say just about the success of the album, it's one that is aged well over time.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_01: It's often revisited with a much fonder opinion of it than it was when it was immediately released.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know if that's because the opinion of John Mayer has shifted over time and there's more of an appreciation for his musicianship, but it does seem like most people who speak about this album now speak about it pretty fondly.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: For sure.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: And I think you you mentioned this earlier.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_00: I I do think the image is getting better.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: I think even five to ten years ago, it was still this kind of like, oh, John Mayer's a playboy, he, you know, body is a wonderland, like it's this kind of like image of who he was.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: And I think I do think he he's come back a little bit more into the good graces of the public eye.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: For whatever reason, I think he's a little bit more of kind of like this older like pop culture figure now.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_00: He's kind of in these like random places with like Andy Cohen and all this stuff.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: The the Dead and Company thing, I think, completely legitimized him musically to a large portion of you know the deadheads that still want to see the music and just him honoring Jerry Garcia in that way.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so I think a combination of some of those factors have have brought him back into the good graces.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_00: I would still like to see more respect on his name overall, but it is heading in the right direction, I would say, like you said.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think that's probably the best way to frame the conversation.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_01: I think today, I mean we could do several podcasts on just John Mayer's overall body of work, but today we will be focusing on this album in particular, continuum.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_01: Ryan, let's start the album cover.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_01: There's two different versions of the album cover.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_01: I'm sure you've seen both.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_01: One is used primarily outside of the United States, the one with his photograph on it is used primarily in the UK and overseas.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_01: The other one that most of you will be more familiar with, it's pretty simple.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_01: It's a gray album cover with just continuum across it, a little bit of blue.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_01: It's simple, it's to the point, but I don't know if it's just because of how big of a fan of it I am.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_01: But this one does have a little bit of staying power for how basic and generic the image is.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_00: It does, and it just sort of reminds me of the time.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_00: Just looking at it, it's like I can see myself at like age 10, like just thinking, yeah, I don't know.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: It's like it's before everything got so like big and flashy, I don't know.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_00: It just feels very like timely for 2006.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if that's just me, but it's a nostalgic for me in that way.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_01: No, you can certainly tell that that's not a new album cover.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_01: It certainly associates well to the time it was put out.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_01: And like I said, it's basic.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_01: There's nothing super complex about it.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_01: It's not as iconic as, say, a born in the USA by Springsteen Horror Rumors by Fleetwood Mac, which are some of the other ones we've done on here, but there is something to the simplicity of it that I'm like, you know what, that does still hit, that still works.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: It does 100%.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_01: Let's get to the tracks, Ryan.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_01: This is why we're here.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, track by track breakdown, track one, waiting on the world to change.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, Johnny, we're still out here waiting.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_01: 20 years later, brother.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, it's it's interesting the way that this song was taken.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_01: It was met with mixed reviews in terms of the message of the song.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_01: What's before we get into the meaning of the song, just tell me what you what you feel when you hear it.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: It is such an awesome drum intro to an album.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_00: Like it's a great drum intro to a song, but it when you put it in the greater context of the album, it is like it's perfect.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_00: And like I said before, it's Steve Jordan, like that groove is so unique.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: The hit the second snare hit is off.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, it's not just one and three.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and it is like it is the definition of pocket, like it is just what you want to hear as a drummer grooving.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_00: And so, like, it just sets the tone so perfectly.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sure you're gonna agree, but like as an intro song to an album, that the first couple bars of just Steve Jordan laying down the foundation is is and I can't envision many better ways to start an album.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_01: I think I always reference this to you, Ryan.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_01: I always look at albums as an entire body of work, and I love when they flow from song one till the final track.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_01: And I listen to music in that manner a lot.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_01: I I prefer to listen to albums instead of playlists.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_01: And when you put the effort in to do a true album opening, and in this case, we'll talk about it later, a true album closer in the way that he does, it feels like it introduces you and ties a bow on it perfectly.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_01: And I love that piece of the storytelling.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that when you bring up Stevie Jordan and in that pocket, what I compare it to, I'm by no means a drum expert.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_01: I do kind of get what you're saying, though, when you lay it out, like he's known for being in that pocket and just grooving.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_01: He's not doing maybe as complex of things as we've heard other drummers do, but it reminds me of the movie Whiplash, where the uh JK Simmons' character is like, are you rushing or are you dragging?
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_01: It seems to me like Steve Jordan is just always on time.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_00: Like neither.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_01: Neither he's always perfect.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_00: Steve Jordan never needs to be asked that question.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_00: He's always perfect.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_00: And it's yeah, and then even uh as I was listening today with some headphones on, like Pino's bass playing on this one too is so awesome.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_00: And that it's it's understated, but it's really, really, really good.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_01: And then the message, it's it's weird.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_01: It's one about how young people feel helpless or powerless, I guess, in the ways that they're able to impact change in this country.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_01: So they're kind of just sitting and waiting on the world to change.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_01: Some people criticized it, saying for lack of better words, it was a passive approach and it kind of inspired complacency.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not so sure I agree with that.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's much more a song about the feeling of helplessness and that they need to, once they are of age and they are the leaders in this country, be the ones who make the change.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_01: That's kind of how I interpreted it.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_00: Totally, I totally agree.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_00: And even if I mean, I think both can be true.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_00: And even if the first part of what you said is is true, I would say it's still true.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I think a lot of us are waiting on the world to change in a lot of ways and just feel very helpless in that.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_00: And I think I don't think feeling helpless is wrong or inspires complacency.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_00: I think there's just like that's just the way of the world typically for people that aren't in power or have like a zillion dollars.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_00: So I I think it's it was timely then.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's timely now.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's it is a and and and to be honest, I mean, I know we're gonna get into these tiers.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_00: There's and our tiers, I think, are gonna be a little bit different.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um so my this one falls into the tier of like timeless classic, in that it's not, it's not necessarily one of my like favorite John Mayer songs, but it is a timeless classic that will withstand the test of time.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_00: Like we talked about with dreams, like we talked about with some other songs, right?
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_00: Like waiting on the world to change will will last for generations because of the message and just because of the popularity of it, um, and it being maybe like one of John Mayer's like title kind of tracks that define his career.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_00: And so to me, it falls in this like kind of tier of its own where it's just like this timeless thing.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_00: But I I like the message, I like the song.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_00: Do I think it's like you know, this musically complex masterpiece?
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_00: No, but it grooves great, the message is great, and and I'm a fan.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it is a classic for me.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_01: It's one of John's most well-known songs.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_01: We are going to, of course, tier these songs, like you mentioned, Ryan.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_01: For just for the listeners' perspective, the tiers are supposed to be the first tier is an elite, great, all-time type song.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_01: It doesn't need to necessarily be iconic, it's just what we consider the best of the best great song.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_01: Tier two is really, really good, just shy of that tier one.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_01: Tier three is a fine song, it could even be good in some cases.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_01: It fits within the album.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_01: We would not cut it, but it's not a standout.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_01: And then tier four is, of course, a cut.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_01: We do not need this song in our lives.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_01: This one falls in tier two for me.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_01: I agree with the iconicness of it, Ryan, but I think if we're both judging it just musically, which is kind of what I want to do here today, I think we would both agree it's a tier two, it's not in that same echelon as some others.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, correct.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_00: I would agree with that musically for sure.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_01: So that's waiting on the world to change.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_01: It's still very prevalent today.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_01: Well-written songs tend to age in that manner, so that's a credit to his songwriting.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_01: The second track is I Don't Trust Myself with Loving You.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_01: Whoo boy, Ryan.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_01: This one's good.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_01: This is one of my favorites ever.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_01: It's it checks all the boxes for Sean Boyle.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, tell me more about that.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_00: What are you what are you looking for?
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_01: I love lyrics, I love the vibe, and I love a groove.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_01: And when I think of this song, those are the three things I think of.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_01: Not only is it just an incredible sounding song, I I love how even at the end of the song, we get the horn section really starting to shine.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_01: We get iconic guitar playing from John Mayer where you just hear a couple of notes and know it's him playing, and that's part of what makes him special is that uniqueness of his sound on the guitar that's on display in this one.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_01: And it's also the peak of like that bad boy John Mayer just kind of womanizing.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_01: He's basically saying, here's who I am.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_01: I'm kind of not the best guy at the moment.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I'm I'm not very trustworthy.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_01: And we don't respect that, John.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_01: But this is when you were putting out the bangers.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_01: So I just I kind of go back to that time and I'm like, wow, was that special?
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, completely.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_00: All of that agree.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to go back to something that you said.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_00: There, yes, it checks every box, but you said you said the word vibe, and I don't know, this song, it just has a vibe, man.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_00: Like, it is like if you want to have like a cozy like dinner party in the fall, you're this song's on the playlist and it's setting the tone and it has got that kind of and it's it's just like setting this like vibe that is like kind of, I don't know, it's indescribable.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_00: It's chill, but it's like a mood, it's it's everything.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_00: So, like, not only is it musically cool on while it's really just playing three chords for 90% of the song, and it still keeps you interested because the The melody of the lyrics is so engaging.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_00: But just the vibe, and again, Steve Jordan and Pino in that pocket, right?
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_00: Like that is the first two songs set that tone, and it's a theme of this album for me, right?
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_00: Like John Mayer's incredible, and we'll talk about that a ton.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_00: But like a lot of these songs are just so dialed rhythmically between that rhythm section of those two.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_00: And that's really what I think puts it over the edge.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_00: And this isn't uh, you know, a perfect example of that.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's perfect, it's per it's almost a perfect song in so many ways, and it's still not my favorite on the album.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's just it's just so good.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_01: And I I will be pointing out some standout lyrics as we go, Ryan, just because I think what makes this album so special for me is the fact that he's able to combine that instrumentation with these lyrics.
• 22:45
  unknown: Right.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_01: One of one of my favorites, and it sums up the whole song.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_01: I will make my way into your garden, then I'll make my way out when it rains.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_01: And he's like, I'm gonna be around when it's easy, but the moment it gets tough, I'll see in a bit.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_01: And it's it's kind of just writing it and telling the world for all to see.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's so good though.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_00: And this is and you know me, we've talked about this on the podcast.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not the biggest lyric guy, but this album, like, I can sing most of the lyrics.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I do know them, and they're it's brilliant.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, the songwriting is ridiculous.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, let's move on to yet another great, great song.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_01: It is the third track, Belief.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_01: And just a little bit of background info on this one.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_01: Ben Harper plays backup guitar.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_01: I think maybe he layers vocals, I'm not sure.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_01: But he's a nice little artist.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_01: I actually have his record hanging wide open arms from a few years ago.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_01: I did not know that he was on this album until I was doing some research and kind of learned.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_01: And it's just cool that he was in that same circle as John around.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_00: Interesting.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_01: He's got a cool sound to him, and he's right, he reminds me more of like a three by five Room for Squares John Mayer collaborator.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_01: It's cool that he made his way on the continuum.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_01: What do you think of Belief?
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, this one is this is my favorite song musically on the album.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think there you can argue, you know, the different lyrics and different other things, but musically speaking, as as I listen to music, like Belief is my favorite musical song.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_00: It is like the perfect combination of that cool John Mayer riff, right?
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_00: Like it is, it is the again, the locked-in bass, the the drums going.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_00: It's got a couple different drum grooves that I really like.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_00: I think it switches up the vocal melodies really nicely from like that kind of the the way that the verse kind of belief is beautiful, and then into like how it changes into the chorus uh with all the the harmonies and stuff.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_00: It it musically is really complex.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_00: The guitar solos are awesome.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_00: It goes, you know, there's that kind of like airy one, and then there's like kind of a shreddy one.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it really kind of covers the spectrum for me on John Mayer.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_00: And I and I like the the way the song's written.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_00: I like the lyrics as well.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm debating if this is my favorite song on the album.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_00: It is certainly top two, but yeah, that's my thoughts.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm super, super high on belief.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_00: It's a tier one for me.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_01: I completely agree.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_01: Tier one for me as well.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_01: And I don't know quickly, did we do tiers for I don't trust myself?
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes I get excited.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_01: I don't think we did, no.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm a tier one for that as well.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_01: That's a tier one, belief is a tier one.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_01: We've got back to back in the top button.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_00: Same here.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_00: Same here.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think you you summed up belief perfectly well from a music standpoint.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_01: It's just so interesting throughout.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_01: It's just a song keeps you engaged the whole time, and then you layer on the storytelling on top of that.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_01: It's just again, it's it's well paced, and I think it's really now we're at the point in the album where you're three songs in and you're like, wow, this is starting to get special.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_01: And then he drops the fourth track, Gravity, which I mean I I I'll go first on just one thing.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_01: I I want to point out, and you can tell me if I'm crazy, but I don't know if there's many guys that have ever lived that are able to play a guitar and make it sound like it's singing like John Mayer can.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_01: He does this call and response type thing with his vocals and then his guitar that it was at least new to me.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not saying it has never been done before.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_01: Music's been around a long time, I'm sure it has.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_01: It never caught me in the way John Mayer was able to catch me.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe it's because of his voice, maybe it's because of his songwriting, but it's certainly because of the way he plays guitar.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_01: And this song does exactly that throughout the whole thing.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, it is you're spot on.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_00: And this is this is example 1A of that.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not sure there's a better one.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_00: Of it, the guitar just sounds like it is it's singing.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_00: Like it is, it's so melodic.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_00: It is, he uses the space the right way.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_00: He's not overplaying, right?
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_00: Like it, it is just the right amount.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_00: And again, a song where the chord regression is simple.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_00: Like this isn't this isn't like some super complex thing that he he does, which he does a lot of, but it is the melody, it is the the making the guitar sing for me.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_00: You're you're so spot on there that makes the song so special, along with the lyrics and the the the music as well.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_00: And another one, another one where Pinot and Steve Jordan are just locked, right?
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's simple, but it is such a tight pocket.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um again, just just so well-rounded for me.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_01: Yep, it I couldn't agree more from what it sounds like musically.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_01: And it's so they go so hand in hand how he's singing and what he's singing about with the sound of the song and the vibe of the song.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_01: Gravity is referring to all the things that can bring a person down, whether that's life in general or fame or drugs or whatever comes with it.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_01: And some of the lines, gravity has taken better men than me, just keep me where the light is, twice as much, ain't twice as good, and can't sustain like one half could.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_01: That's just man, it's just special stuff.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_00: It's genius, it's genius.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_00: I want to reiterate one more thing as I thought about it.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I think oh, in general, so both John's guitar playing, Steve Jordan's playing in this one.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_00: There's not many songs in my you know, wheelhouse that I and I know a lot of songs that use space quite like this song does.
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_00: Like, there is there's a lot happening, but then there's like not.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_00: Like, there's an equal amount of this kind of like push and pull with like empty space, and you feel it from the initial groove.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_00: Like, it is a slow six-eight.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_00: Like, and there's so much space between those notes, and you would think that that leads for a song to be like boring or unengaging, and it's like the complete opposite.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_00: It it pulls you in.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, it's special.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_00: This one to me is is another tier one.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_01: I think there's something to be said about that in music as well, where if you're able to connect to an artist at a level that uh John Mayer is, and in in today's world, there's some others as well.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_01: That you are almost better off giving that second sometimes of whether it's air or it's a second to catch your breath, but it it it feels it makes you miss them almost for that one second, and it pulls you in just a little bit closer.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that's such a good point to bring up the spacing of this one.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_01: It's perfect.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_01: It's just songwriting and instrumentation at their finest.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_01: For me, this is the clearest, easiest tier one I've ever handed out.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's a masterclass.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_00: The easy, easy one.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_01: We'll move on to the heart of life, which I'll let you cook on first.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_01: I know it might not be your favorite musically, I'm guessing.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, this is my least favorite song on the album, I think, after doing giving it a couple more listens today.
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, not to say it's a bad song by any means.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_00: I wouldn't cut it.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_00: And there are some good lyrics in this one too.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I'll I'll reiterate that.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_00: Like, even on even the song that I view as the quote unquote worst song on the album, there's still some really, really good songwriting.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_00: It's just a little repetitive for me and not engaging enough to be repetitive.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_00: So, like, I can do repetitive if it's if it's super engaging.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_00: But yeah, this one just like it for the standard of how high every other song in this album is, it just doesn't reach that mark for me.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm and again, that's no shade.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_00: But it's just it's it's it leaves it a little, it's a little one note for me, which is why I would put it in the in the third tier of like nice on the album, kind of in the flow of things, wouldn't cut it, but also not my favorite.
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, completely get where you're coming from.
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_01: I don't think that's outrageous at all.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_01: I'm between a tier two and three for myself on this one.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_01: I'll leave it in tier two just because I'm in a good mood, but it's honestly uh it is a little bit lacking musically, especially coming off the high of gravity, where you just are really in a certain mood, and then you hear this one.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_01: It's a change of pace, and it's I think it's beautifully written, like you mentioned.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_01: It might actually be one of the strongest lyric songs on the album.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_01: It's beautiful.
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_01: Some of them bad news never has good timing.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_01: That's a line that sticks with you.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_01: There's just certain things he writes in here that are so tender, and it it shows you how good he is at that side of the craft as well.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_01: But I do think the best on this album or where he's able to combine that with the music, this one not as much for me.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm gonna go tier two, but it's close to tier three.
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, all right.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_00: I think we're we're in a similar ballpark here.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_01: The sixth track is vultures.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_01: I just had my notes one of my favorites live, and it is Grooveville USA.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's just a groove, like another one, man.
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_00: And and I think listening to through this album a couple times today to kind of refresh, it it just becomes so evident how good that drumming is, man.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_00: Like it Steve Jordan is just special, and like I I I you know he's special from the trio stuff and just how good he is live, but like this album, like it you're right, it's groove, it's groove C.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_00: It's that it it is like so locked, so dialed, that rhythm section.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_00: And this one is specially, right?
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I've been saying this over and over again, but the bass line on this one is so cool, and you can hear it clear as day if you're listening through like headphones or speaker or something.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I love this song.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's really cool.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_00: I think the low end bass and that kind of bassy, punchy drum play off the kind of high riff he's playing on up the neck on the guitar a little bit for the main riff.
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um, he you know, does his little John Mayer falsetto thing for the chorus, right?
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_00: And and there's some really cool lead guitar stuff with the solos.
• 32:05
  SPEAKER_00: So this one is awesome.
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't I this is between a one and two for me.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and and I I in in the spirit of keeping tier one like ultra special, I'm gonna put it in tier two, but that doesn't that doesn't mean I like I actually like it more than a couple of the tier one songs, maybe.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_00: But I think this song is it is a perfect again mix of that that punch of the rhythm section with what John can do on guitar.
• 32:31
  SPEAKER_00: Uh songwriting, you could talk maybe a little bit more about the lyrics.
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_00: Not maybe not like my favorite, but other than that, musically it's really cool.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_01: It's a lot more basic on the songwriting level for me.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_01: And that's ultimately ultimately why I have it in tier two.
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_01: It's close to me.
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_01: Sound-wise, I go back and forth.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_01: I said it's one of my favorites live because of that grooviness.
• 32:51
  SPEAKER_01: I just think ultimately, like you said, that tier one is special, and I'm gonna reserve it for just a couple on this album.
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_01: And I think Vultures just comes up a touch short, but it's it's right there for me.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_00: For sure, for sure, absolutely.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_01: The seventh track, Rai, another special one.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_01: This is Stop This Train.
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_01: And I really was listening to this again in preparation for this, and it uh god, it is just an incredible song from a songwriting perspective.
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_01: Honest to God, I don't throw around masterclass too often.
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_01: I think this is one of those.
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, when you're listening to this song with any kind of intent, it's hard to not get like a shiver.
• 33:31
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's a great way to put it.
• 33:34
  SPEAKER_00: So it is it is so timeless lyrically and thematically.
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_00: Whether you're like, I I mean, I remember listening to the song when we were in college together, like thinking about this, like you know, like, and then now it's like, oh, you know, I turned 30 this year, then that holds a new thing.
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_00: Then you know, when I have kids, I'm sure it'll be a new thing.
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_00: Like, it's like it's just it's just so timeless.
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_00: Like, regardless of where you're at in your life, you're thinking about like, gosh, like this train is going pretty fast.
• 34:03
  SPEAKER_00: Like, and then you know, talking about the generational thing and the parents thing, which I'm sure hits really hard for some people, and like, man, not to and then not to mention uh just this incredible acoustic guitar lick throughout the whole thing.
• 34:15
  SPEAKER_00: It's super complex.
• 34:17
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I I I can play maybe 40% of it, but like it is the you know, the John Mayer playing the drums while playing the guitar kind of rhythmic thing that he's doing with the with the thumb.
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's special.
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_00: It's so, so special in a way that a lot of these, I mean, even like I don't I don't know.
• 34:33
  SPEAKER_00: It it's it's hard to verbalize just how good and well-rounded this thing is on all on all sides.
• 34:39
  SPEAKER_00: It's obviously tier one for me for sure.
• 34:42
  SPEAKER_00: This is the one that I would go between uh with belief as far as my favorite, either that either belief or this one.
• 34:47
  SPEAKER_00: Two very different songs.
• 34:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but this is it is you're right, it's a masterpiece.
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_01: The I I always associate that little snare drum, I think it is, with kind of a train on the tracks, and it just continues throughout the whole song.
• 35:00
  SPEAKER_01: It's steady.
• 35:01
  SPEAKER_01: And I don't know if that's intentional or not, but boy, does it seem like it.
• 35:05
  SPEAKER_01: This song's so symbolic with so many different key important times of life that just come up, and then you can easily point to and relate what he was talking about and feeling in the moment.
• 35:15
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that's so cool.
• 35:17
  SPEAKER_01: Some of the lyrics, one generation's length length away from fighting life out on my own.
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_01: Brutal.
• 35:23
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, what, dude?
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_01: What are we doing?
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_01: So tough.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, just talk about like you getting older, your parents getting older.
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_01: And he continues, he says, so scared of getting older.
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_01: I'm only good at being young.
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_01: So I played the one, yeah.
• 35:38
  SPEAKER_01: So I play the numbers game to find a way to say that life has just begun.
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_00: That might be my favorite John Mayer lyric.
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I I can't off the top of my head, I can't think of one for me personally.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_00: Like, and again, as we get older, like into our like 30s, it's like that that just starts to ring true.
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_00: It's like we're in this weird kind of middle, and I feel like I feel like I'm only good at being young, but now I'm being you know, asked with all those like responsibilities and things.
• 36:00
  SPEAKER_00: It's like so, and you do try to rationalize it.
• 36:03
  SPEAKER_00: You're like, oh, okay, like I feel old, but like, wait a minute, no, I'm only 30.
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I should I should be another blah blah blah years or whatever.
• 36:09
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I'm I'm I'm still young.
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_00: It's like it's so relatable.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and for him to write that, he must have been what?
• 36:15
  SPEAKER_00: Like, how how old was John Mary in 2006?
• 36:18
  SPEAKER_00: Close around 30, maybe.
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean, it was 20 years ago, and he's probab uh he was probably 28.
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, something like that.
• 36:26
  SPEAKER_00: Like to have the perspective to like write a song like that.
• 36:29
  SPEAKER_00: That's I mean, it's it's otherworldly.
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_01: It it is so so good, Ryan.
• 36:35
  SPEAKER_01: And when he switches at the end to almost talking from his dad's point of view, he says, like, John, help me understand, or you'll understand.
• 36:42
  SPEAKER_01: It would turn 68, you'll renegotiate.
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_01: It's just, I mean, it's a perfect song, it's obviously tier one for me.
• 36:48
  SPEAKER_01: So good, so good.
• 36:50
  SPEAKER_00: It's is this your favorite on the album?
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_01: No, it is not my favorite.
• 36:53
  SPEAKER_01: We're we're still not at my favorite, but yeah, which we're we're about to be.
• 36:59
  SPEAKER_00: So I had a feeling, I had a feeling.
• 37:01
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, the eighth track is slow dancing in a burning room.
• 37:05
  SPEAKER_01: And again, we're just gonna hit the same notes over and over on this album, it seems like, but what a great analogy for a dying relationship.
• 37:12
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, it's another one where we're combining that elite level songwriting with the instrumentation, and it just works on all the levels for me, Ryan.
• 37:19
  SPEAKER_01: It is my favorite.
• 37:21
  SPEAKER_00: It's a it's a brilliant analogy for a dying relationship.
• 37:25
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I was thinking about it as I was listening to it today.
• 37:28
  SPEAKER_00: Like, how do you how does your brain like come up with something like that?
• 37:32
  SPEAKER_00: Like, slow dancing in a burning room, like it is such a perfect image for what you're trying to talk about.
• 37:40
  SPEAKER_00: But so few words.
• 37:42
  SPEAKER_00: Like, what are you what are you supposed to do in a burning room?
• 37:44
  SPEAKER_00: You're supposed to run out, it's gonna kill you, but you know, you're slow dancing in it.
• 37:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but like it you're having fun doing it, but you know that it's bad and it's and it's oh, it's perfect, it's brilliant.
• 37:56
  SPEAKER_00: This is one where uh when you when you uh so for a brief stint of my first when I was an intern at Baylor, I I uh moonlighted at guitar center to make some extra money, and this is one that you you know you're good uh you know, three to four times a shift.
• 38:11
  SPEAKER_00: Some some mediocre guitar player is gonna come in, plug in, and try to play this riff, and it's gonna sound terrible.
• 38:18
  SPEAKER_00: But because it's because it never sounds the same.
• 38:21
  SPEAKER_00: No, it's because it's the tone, it's the John Mayer tone.
• 38:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 38:24
  SPEAKER_00: And just the way he plays it too dynamically, like it's so hard to replicate.
• 38:28
  SPEAKER_00: Like, yeah, you could like you know mess around with it, but like it's so delicate and intentional and dynamic that yeah, I mean, the riff is special.
• 38:37
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it it's it is timeless.
• 38:39
  SPEAKER_00: The riff is timeless in a way that I think a couple other things are on this album, but yeah, the metaphor, the lyrics, it this is one for me, like lyrically, that's like holy crap, like this is one of the better lyrical songs I I am aware of.
• 38:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 38:53
  SPEAKER_00: You're I I'm not gonna argue with you with being your favorite for sure.
• 38:56
  SPEAKER_01: It's yeah, it's it just edges out a couple others for my favorite.
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_01: Like you said, you hit on all the same things I wanted to talk about, so I won't beat a dead horse, but boy, oh boy, it's once again that call and response where he's singing it himself and then the guitar's singing it after him in an even more pointfully painful way.
• 39:15
  SPEAKER_01: And it's boy, it's like, wow, that's the good stuff there.
• 39:18
  SPEAKER_01: When we can get songs like that, that's when you really feel something.
• 39:21
  SPEAKER_01: And this album just has more of those than almost any other.
• 39:25
  SPEAKER_01: So that's why that's why we're here talking about it.
• 39:27
  SPEAKER_01: The ninth track, though, Ryan, is not a John Mayer original.
• 39:30
  SPEAKER_01: This is a cover.
• 39:31
  SPEAKER_01: This is a Jimi Hendrix cover, bold as love.
• 39:35
  SPEAKER_01: I'll be honest, the first maybe hundred times I listened to it, I did not know it was a Hendrix song.
• 39:40
  SPEAKER_00: Me as well.
• 39:40
  SPEAKER_00: We're on the same page there.
• 39:42
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, yeah.
• 39:42
  SPEAKER_00: Uh yeah, we're definitely on the same page there.
• 39:44
  SPEAKER_01: Great, but I did I did attribute a lot of its greatness to John when in retrospect, I'm now shifting a lot of that credit towards Mr.
• 39:51
  SPEAKER_01: Hendrix.
• 39:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, what do you think of just the like artistic decision of like including it on a studio album like that?
• 39:59
  SPEAKER_01: Weird.
• 39:59
  SPEAKER_01: It's yeah, and I'm not gonna say weird in a bad way, because I love the song and I think it fits on the album.
• 40:04
  SPEAKER_01: It it provides a different element to it.
• 40:07
  SPEAKER_01: I don't like if it's all one note, or like you said, things start to sound repetitive.
• 40:10
  SPEAKER_01: This one for me doesn't sound repetitive, so I enjoy its presence.
• 40:13
  SPEAKER_01: It's just an interesting choice.
• 40:15
  SPEAKER_01: You don't see that often where out of kind of left field on an otherwise entirely self-written album, you just do a cover, and it's not the most like overly publicized cover either.
• 40:25
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 40:26
  SPEAKER_01: It's like it's kind of like a sneaky cover.
• 40:29
  SPEAKER_00: For non-ball knowers like us at the time, you it could be slipped in there as an original, which it's a little it's an undercover.
• 40:37
  SPEAKER_01: It's an undercover.
• 40:38
  SPEAKER_00: It feels a little sneaky.
• 40:39
  SPEAKER_00: It does.
• 40:39
  SPEAKER_00: That being said, like this is a John Mayer trio classic, uh, but it's I mean, it's awesome.
• 40:45
  SPEAKER_00: It's again you talked about this earlier of this album kind of being his like breakaway from being this kind of like poppy, kind of like you know, pretty boy kind of image.
• 40:54
  SPEAKER_00: Uh covering a Jimi Hendrix song certainly helps that cause and and putting it on an album.
• 41:00
  SPEAKER_00: So I love the rendition.
• 41:02
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I think it it does it justice.
• 41:04
  SPEAKER_00: Do I think it's like a crazy unique?
• 41:08
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I no.
• 41:09
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I I think it honestly sounds generally pretty similar to like the Hendrix version.
• 41:14
  SPEAKER_00: It just has a little John Mayer flair to it, but like that's it, it just sounds like him, but really like the arrangement is pretty similar.
• 41:21
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, there's not a whole lot that's different.
• 41:22
  SPEAKER_00: So I would agree with you that it's a sim kind of weird artistic choice to include on the album.
• 41:27
  SPEAKER_00: I like it personally, like I don't dislike the song by any means, and I like when he plays it live and stuff, but it doesn't, it also kind of doesn't really feel like it fits here, and maybe there's some like lyrical thing that makes it fit, and I'm completely oblivious, and I would like for you to call me on that if I am, but it doesn't feel like it fits the vibe of the rest of the album per se.
• 41:48
  SPEAKER_01: So I said kind of the opposite, where I think it does fit because it provides that different element where you know we don't have a song like it, but I can also completely see where you're coming from, where it could just be like one key out of where it should be.
• 42:01
  SPEAKER_01: We, you know, it's a little bit too much of a change of pace from the rest of the album where it's like you're flowing and you're in a flow state, and then all of a sudden it's like, oh, here's this Hendrix cover kind of out of nowhere.
• 42:10
  SPEAKER_01: So I do get that as well, and it kind of depends on the listening experience for me each time.
• 42:15
  SPEAKER_01: I do I do like that he showcased what you're saying, like a Hendrix cover takes him away from that pretty boy.
• 42:21
  SPEAKER_01: So I like that part of it, but now that I'm thinking about it more and more, if we're just strictly gonna cut a song from the album, this one might be the one to cut just because of its place or the fact that it's out of place on the record.
• 42:32
  SPEAKER_00: It's a fair, it's a very fair point, and like logistically, I don't think I would argue with you.
• 42:36
  SPEAKER_00: I like it better than one or two others, but uh, I would agree with you from a from a fit standpoint.
• 42:42
  SPEAKER_00: I had this one in tier two.
• 42:44
  SPEAKER_00: I had a tier three just because of the fact that it's not his, you know.
• 42:48
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's totally fair.
• 42:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I do enjoy it.
• 42:51
  SPEAKER_01: Like if I was just judging, if this was the only edition of this song to exist, probably be a tier two.
• 42:56
  SPEAKER_01: But the fact that I now know he didn't really change up a old tune that much, it's gonna go tier three.
• 43:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 43:03
  SPEAKER_01: Tenth track, Rye.
• 43:04
  SPEAKER_01: We're almost done with this album.
• 43:06
  SPEAKER_01: We have three left.
• 43:07
  SPEAKER_01: This is Dreaming with a Broken Heart.
• 43:10
  SPEAKER_01: Musically, it doesn't do as much for me, maybe, as some of the other ones.
• 43:15
  SPEAKER_01: But here we go again with those lyrics.
• 43:17
  SPEAKER_01: And I think in terms of just a songwriting perspective and how he builds the arrangement, I think the crescendo towards something on the back half of this song is really, really special.
• 43:29
  SPEAKER_01: I absolutely love the build.
• 43:31
  SPEAKER_00: Totally agree.
• 43:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I would agree with you.
• 43:34
  SPEAKER_00: I actually like I like the the s the switch to a piano-driven tune.
• 43:39
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's cool um and and has a place.
• 43:41
  SPEAKER_00: I I like the riff, the lyrics are phenomenal, like you said.
• 43:45
  SPEAKER_00: And I I don't I like this one a fair bit better than uh Heart of Life.
• 43:52
  SPEAKER_00: I have it in tier two, which like like the lower lower end of tier two, like but listening to I do, I agree.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_00: I like the crescendo too.
• 44:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I like that it kind of has that big end, right?
• 44:05
  SPEAKER_00: That where it starts driving a little bit.
• 44:08
  SPEAKER_00: It's a theatrical ending, you know.
• 44:09
  SPEAKER_01: It's like a big, it's a moment on the album.
• 44:11
  SPEAKER_01: Uh it almost feels like it could be a closer in some ways.
• 44:15
  SPEAKER_01: It does.
• 44:15
  SPEAKER_01: But I like that it's kind of like a hey, we're getting ready for bed.
• 44:19
  SPEAKER_01: We're not shutting the lights off and going to bed immediately.
• 44:21
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it's a little like we still have a couple more to enjoy.
• 44:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 44:24
  SPEAKER_01: But I completely agree.
• 44:25
  SPEAKER_01: The crescendo and then the ending portion of the song in particular, they do get it to a tier two for me.
• 44:30
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm with you.
• 44:31
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's really, really good, if not elite.
• 44:34
  SPEAKER_01: The 11th track, the penultimate, it is in repair, Rai.
• 44:38
  SPEAKER_01: I'll let you start here.
• 44:40
  SPEAKER_00: I love this tune.
• 44:41
  SPEAKER_00: It is.
• 44:43
  SPEAKER_00: It might be John Mayer's most underrated song.
• 44:46
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 44:47
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you're on the same wavelength as me.
• 44:49
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe I'm like crazy, but that's it.
• 44:51
  SPEAKER_00: No, it's in that bucket for sure for me.
• 44:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 44:53
  SPEAKER_00: And so you knew this, I didn't.
• 44:56
  SPEAKER_00: I sent you this video today.
• 44:58
  SPEAKER_00: I did not know that the song was written in one day.
• 45:00
  SPEAKER_00: Hand up, didn't know.
• 45:02
  SPEAKER_00: And for that to be the case, for them to roll up to a studio and create this, like not, you know, if it was one of the like, you know, lesser songs on the album, it would still be really impressive.
• 45:14
  SPEAKER_00: But for it to be this one is just, I mean, what is there to say?
• 45:18
  SPEAKER_00: What like what is there to say, truly?
• 45:20
  SPEAKER_00: It and what was really interesting in the video, and something that I didn't pick up on, is the early, like the very first couple seconds of the song, it sounds like an organ almost, but it's not.
• 45:30
  SPEAKER_00: It's guitar pedals creating that effect.
• 45:32
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 45:33
  SPEAKER_00: It it was John playing around with like these, you know, a hundred pedals that he had in the studio, yeah, and finding this sound that kind of sounds like an organ bell kind of situation, and that was the kind of three-chord progression that he created with it.
• 45:46
  SPEAKER_00: So I would encourage listeners if they like this song.
• 45:49
  SPEAKER_00: It was something that I didn't know, and I I love this album to death.
• 45:52
  SPEAKER_00: So highly recommend the video.
• 45:54
  SPEAKER_00: It was really cool to see that.
• 45:55
  SPEAKER_00: And then Pino comes in, Steve comes in, and it's it's vibing, it's grooving again.
• 46:01
  SPEAKER_00: I lyrically, it's one of my favorite songs, maybe ever.
• 46:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's similar.
• 46:07
  SPEAKER_00: I I talked about Stop This Train being timeless.
• 46:10
  SPEAKER_00: The the kind of outro bridge thing of this song is timeless to me of I'm in repair, I'm not together, but I'm getting there.
• 46:18
  SPEAKER_00: Like it's just, I mean, come on.
• 46:22
  SPEAKER_01: You struck so many chords, right?
• 46:24
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's just it's so so good.
• 46:26
  SPEAKER_01: It's flawless.
• 46:27
  SPEAKER_01: I want to go back to your original point about it being an underrated John Mayer song.
• 46:31
  SPEAKER_01: This is a song that recently I've been talking about John Mayer for so long that it's finally starting to wear off on some of my close friends.
• 46:38
  SPEAKER_01: Our buddy Shane Douglas has become in the last year a real big John Mayer fan.
• 46:43
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, at first in his discography, and my other buddy Dustin Arnold.
• 46:47
  SPEAKER_01: This is a song that when you show them and they're starting to really understand John Mayer, that they take that next level of appreciation with.
• 46:54
  SPEAKER_01: So it's too.
• 46:56
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's really cool when you see it.
• 46:58
  SPEAKER_01: And that's what sharing music, that's like the height of sharing music's all about.
• 47:02
  SPEAKER_01: So this is a ball mower song for sure.
• 47:04
  SPEAKER_01: And I I completely agree with the arrangement of it.
• 47:07
  SPEAKER_01: It's so cool.
• 47:08
  SPEAKER_01: It almost feels like in the first half it's about the grief.
• 47:11
  SPEAKER_01: And then in the second half, when you're building musically, you start to break through the other side of the thing.
• 47:17
  SPEAKER_01: And now he one of the lyrics is now when we're walking in the park, when things turn green again, almost saying, like, when I get back and it's okay to be me again, that's when it's gonna be good.
• 47:30
  SPEAKER_01: And it's such a cool dynamic to the song.
• 47:33
  SPEAKER_01: You mentioned the line, I'm in repair, I'm not together when I'm but I'm getting there.
• 47:36
  SPEAKER_01: It's just a flawless, flawless song.
• 47:39
  SPEAKER_00: Perfect.
• 47:40
  SPEAKER_00: And one more note in the video, um, John Mayer goes into the studio with a guy named Charlie Hunter, who he highlighted a little bit during COVID.
• 47:48
  SPEAKER_00: I actually followed him on Instagram.
• 47:50
  SPEAKER_00: Uh he plays an instrument that is bass and guitar on the same neck.
• 47:57
  SPEAKER_00: So it's not double neck, it is four strings of bass, I believe, and then six guitar strings on the bottom, like on the same neck.
• 48:06
  SPEAKER_00: So he's playing the bass and the guitar with one hand up and down the neck.
• 48:11
  SPEAKER_00: And John Meyer says it in the video.
• 48:12
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's actually really funny the way he says it.
• 48:14
  SPEAKER_00: He says he play he's playing the bass and guitar, but in a way that's not gimmicky.
• 48:19
  SPEAKER_00: Because like that sounds like something that could be gimmicky of just like, oh, look at me, I'm playing like two things.
• 48:24
  SPEAKER_00: Like, and it sounds bad, but it's so tasteful.
• 48:26
  SPEAKER_00: And he Charlie Hunter came up with that little bridge piece to like da da da da da.
• 48:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 48:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um that's all him.
• 48:35
  SPEAKER_00: Like, he plays it in the middle of it.
• 48:36
  SPEAKER_00: John's like, I love that.
• 48:37
  SPEAKER_00: Let's add it in.
• 48:38
  SPEAKER_00: That's awesome.
• 48:39
  SPEAKER_00: Super cool little tidbit, and another fun fact about the song that again just adds to the lore of it.
• 48:44
  SPEAKER_00: It's fantastic tier one.
• 48:46
  SPEAKER_01: Tier one for me as well.
• 48:48
  SPEAKER_01: The tier one's getting awfully full, there's not a lot of random in.
• 48:51
  SPEAKER_01: The final track, Ryan, is the 12th one.
• 48:54
  SPEAKER_01: It's I'm going to find another you.
• 48:57
  SPEAKER_01: And from the very first second that this song starts, it's like I said at the top, it's a perfect album closer.
• 49:04
  SPEAKER_01: Not many things can tie a bow on a record better than this could.
• 49:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 49:08
  SPEAKER_01: Immediate lyric, it's really over.
• 49:11
  SPEAKER_01: You've made your stand, you got me crying, as was your plan.
• 49:14
  SPEAKER_01: It's just absolutely flawless.
• 49:17
  SPEAKER_01: The way he's singing it, it's telling you this is the conclusion.
• 49:20
  SPEAKER_01: And it's a rare album where you're just begging for it not to end.
• 49:24
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I love this song so much.
• 49:26
  SPEAKER_01: It's great.
• 49:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, man.
• 49:30
  SPEAKER_00: It's got this kind of like when the groove gets going, it kind of has this like old school, like, not like doo-op, but this kind of like, you know, 50s, 60s kind of swing thing, um, like a blues kind of chord progression.
• 49:45
  SPEAKER_01: I I was I was gonna say blues, and because the one lyric he said, I'm gonna sing my way away from blue, meaning sadness.
• 49:52
  SPEAKER_01: But when he's doing that, you hear the blues elements of the song.
• 49:55
  SPEAKER_01: So I thought that was really pointed, and I think that's what I like in it too the most.
• 49:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 49:59
  SPEAKER_00: And I know, you know, both of us have been through breakups and things, and that like there's just no, I mean, John John Mayer in general, but this one is like it's like just so it's so perfect when you're going through something like that.
• 50:13
  SPEAKER_00: It's like it's like therapy.
• 50:15
  SPEAKER_02: Over the breakup, is he going out and partying or is he at home listening to John Mayer?
• 50:18
  SPEAKER_02: It's like, no, put on, I'm gonna find whether you correct.
• 50:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, repeat it ten times.
• 50:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so that I mean, it it's such a good one.
• 50:26
  SPEAKER_00: It's uh it pulls at the hard strings in all the right ways.
• 50:28
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, I mean, I know we said tier one was getting full, but the this one's also tier one for me.
• 50:34
  SPEAKER_01: Tier one for me as well.
• 50:35
  SPEAKER_01: So I have one song in tiers three and four combined, and it's bold as love in tier three, which is non-original John Mayer.
• 50:42
  SPEAKER_01: So that's that's gonna give you an indication of my overall opinion of the album.
• 50:47
  SPEAKER_01: Ryan, before we give our score, let's do quickly give our kind of wrap-up, our closing thoughts.
• 50:53
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think two really two or three notes.
• 50:56
  SPEAKER_00: The the one, like I mentioned before, is individually you don't realize this, but as you listen to the album collectively and as I've kind of matured, like how locked in Pino and Steve Jordan are is really special throughout the album.
• 51:09
  SPEAKER_00: Like just really, really, really special start to finish in a way that not a lot of rhythm sections can can say.
• 51:15
  SPEAKER_00: And so that is one constant theme.
• 51:18
  SPEAKER_00: Second constant theme, like I talked about, is the songwriting.
• 51:21
  SPEAKER_00: As you know, I'm not the biggest like lyrics guy.
• 51:23
  SPEAKER_00: Like, yes, they're important, and I would like to be able to hear them more, but honestly, I'm so dialed on music that it usually doesn't matter.
• 51:29
  SPEAKER_00: This is maybe my maybe my one-one songwriting album.
• 51:35
  SPEAKER_00: And I know you are you're way, way down the well, so I don't expect you to reciprocate that, but to me, like it certainly could be.
• 51:41
  SPEAKER_00: The songwriting is absolutely phenomenal.
• 51:44
  SPEAKER_00: And then I think you see the wider array or range of what John Mayer can do on this album.
• 51:51
  SPEAKER_00: So everything from shredding on belief and slow dancing to the kind of like heart of life piano kind of situation, blues situation, everything in between.
• 52:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and it really kind of breaks that the the acoustic mold, the pretty boy mold, all the stuff that kind of pigeonholed him early is officially shattered, and he's just like a very legitimate songwriter guitar player that that is on the scene officially.
• 52:19
  SPEAKER_00: So those three things I think summarize it well for me.
• 52:23
  SPEAKER_01: I think those are all brilliant points.
• 52:25
  SPEAKER_01: I would echo all of them, except I would stop short of calling this one of the best lyric albums for me, but you you preface that correctly by saying that you care a lot less about lyrics than I do.
• 52:34
  SPEAKER_01: That's one of the most important things for me is being able to connect to lyrics a lot of the time.
• 52:37
  SPEAKER_01: So the fact that this one, what it does do, even if it's not as elite of a level, in my opinion, as some of the best written albums ever, it's certainly close and it connects to me personally.
• 52:48
  SPEAKER_01: Right as a guy who John's probably about 28, whatever he is, when he's putting this album out.
• 52:53
  SPEAKER_01: That's a very relatable time for when I've been listening to this in my adult life.
• 52:56
  SPEAKER_01: So I think that's a big part of it for me.
• 52:59
  SPEAKER_01: It's one of my favorite artists ever, and it's one of his very best albums, if not his very best.
• 53:05
  SPEAKER_01: I go back and forth between this and Room for Squares just because of sentimental reasons and what my favorite is, but it's right up there.
• 53:12
  SPEAKER_01: His ability to write songs that showcase the creativity of his guitar playing.
• 53:16
  SPEAKER_01: I think that's unique.
• 53:18
  SPEAKER_01: Not many people can play guitar like that, and the fact that he's able to do it, but then also sing so well and write lyrics so well and make such good musical arrangement choices.
• 53:28
  SPEAKER_01: And the fact that he does it all genuinely himself with a couple of his guys, it makes it really special and unique and cool for me.
• 53:35
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 53:36
  SPEAKER_00: Very well said.
• 53:37
  SPEAKER_00: You you you mentioned going back and forth with room for squares.
• 53:40
  SPEAKER_00: I would agree that those are definitely the top two.
• 53:42
  SPEAKER_00: I think this for me, when I when I think about it, usually edges it out, but it it depends on the day.
• 53:48
  SPEAKER_00: Because looking at the track list of Room for Squares, it's pretty freaking good too.
• 53:53
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's definitely hard.
• 53:55
  SPEAKER_00: I I would I would still think I cement this as probably my favorite, and this is for sure a top 10 album for me, if if not top five, when I really dig into it.
• 54:05
  SPEAKER_01: It's for sure in that same bucket for me, Ryan.
• 54:08
  SPEAKER_01: I would probably say top five on most days, top ten on its worst day, you know.
• 54:13
  SPEAKER_01: But it it combines so many cool elements of pop, of rock, of jazz, of the blues.
• 54:20
  SPEAKER_01: There's just so many different things on display throughout that it makes it that perfectly balanced record, like I said.
• 54:26
  SPEAKER_01: So I go back and forth on whether Bold's love actually belongs, could you cut it, whatever.
• 54:30
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 54:31
  SPEAKER_01: But when you look at if you're trying to just check as many boxes as possible on a what does this sound like record, I think this does so many different genres tastefully.
• 54:41
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that's such a credit to keeping things fresh and making it so easy to get through.
• 54:45
  SPEAKER_01: This is one where you listen to it and then you immediately want to listen to it again.
• 54:48
  SPEAKER_01: How many albums are like that where you don't you're like, oh, that was good, but I've heard enough for now?
• 54:52
  SPEAKER_01: It's so rare that you're like, yeah, run it right back.
• 54:55
  SPEAKER_00: Run it, and you can perfectly because it's got that I'm gonna find another you, and then it's like boom, right back into waiting on the world to change or the groove.
• 55:02
  SPEAKER_01: It's perfect.
• 55:03
  SPEAKER_01: So give me a score, Ryan.
• 55:06
  SPEAKER_01: We've done a few of these now.
• 55:08
  SPEAKER_01: I I want to know what continuum by John Mayer gets out of you.
• 55:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 55:17
  SPEAKER_00: This is, I mean, it's it's it's incredible.
• 55:19
  SPEAKER_00: Like I said, probably a top five for me.
• 55:22
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to give it a 96 out of 100.
• 55:27
  SPEAKER_00: Very high.
• 55:28
  SPEAKER_01: We're so close.
• 55:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's where I'm at.
• 55:31
  SPEAKER_01: I I was 97.
• 55:32
  SPEAKER_01: I did one lower than first.
• 55:35
  SPEAKER_01: I gave a 98.
• 55:36
  SPEAKER_01: And this is one below that.
• 55:38
  SPEAKER_01: I I was going to maybe give it a tie score and give rumors just a 0.5 edge or something, but I think for me, it's just a notch below, and that's kind of no fault of John's own.
• 55:49
  SPEAKER_01: It's just the multiple singers and Fleetwood always pull me in and the ability to.
• 55:54
  SPEAKER_01: For sure.
• 55:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's fair.
• 55:56
  SPEAKER_01: Boy, oh boy, it's just so good.
• 55:59
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm so glad we got to talk about it here because this album deserves an hour-long podcast for sure.
• 56:04
  SPEAKER_00: It does.
• 56:05
  SPEAKER_00: I wonder if anyone else has done it.
• 56:07
  SPEAKER_00: I hope not, because it, you know, hopefully we're the first on the scene 20 years later.
• 56:12
  SPEAKER_01: There's probably a hundred of these exact out there.
• 56:14
  SPEAKER_00: You know, actually, you know what I just realized.
• 56:17
  SPEAKER_00: The anniversary, the 20-year anniversary is in a month.
• 56:20
  SPEAKER_01: It is, it's October 16th, maybe.
• 56:23
  SPEAKER_00: I'm seeing September September 12th.
• 56:27
  SPEAKER_01: Hold on.
• 56:27
  SPEAKER_01: I have it in my notes when it was released.
• 56:29
  SPEAKER_01: It was September 12th.
• 56:31
  SPEAKER_01: It was September 12th.
• 56:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 56:32
  SPEAKER_00: So literally in like five weeks, it's the 20-year anniversary.
• 56:35
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, do you remember before we wrap up, do you remember the night that we were following John Mayer's tour, seeing what songs he was playing?
• 56:43
  SPEAKER_01: And he just started playing continuum front to back at Madison Square Garden.
• 56:48
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 56:49
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 56:50
  SPEAKER_01: That would have been a cool show to be at.
• 56:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, my uh my buddy uh Nicole, shout out, the one who got me the the goose hookup.
• 56:58
  SPEAKER_00: She was at that show.
• 56:59
  SPEAKER_00: She was telling me when uh when I was there visiting her cut last month, and I yeah, just cannot imagine having that kind of of luck to be able to witness that live in person.
• 57:09
  SPEAKER_00: Truly spectacular.
• 57:10
  SPEAKER_01: Never had any luck at a John Mayer show.
• 57:13
  SPEAKER_00: That's fair.
• 57:14
  SPEAKER_00: You know what?
• 57:14
  SPEAKER_00: That's fair.
• 57:15
  SPEAKER_00: You can't catch up.
• 57:16
  SPEAKER_00: Redacted, redacted.
• 57:18
  SPEAKER_00: I take it back.
• 57:19
  SPEAKER_02: No, I completely agree.
• 57:20
  SPEAKER_02: That would have been the show to be at, maybe of all time.
• 57:23
  SPEAKER_02: Ryan, thank you very much for joining me.
• 57:25
  SPEAKER_01: Anything before you go.
• 57:26
  SPEAKER_00: Nah, love this album, love chatting music with you.
• 57:29
  SPEAKER_00: Glad we could uh share our love for this album together in the in a public forum.
• 57:34
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly right.
• 57:34
  SPEAKER_01: I co-sign that.
• 57:36
  SPEAKER_01: Listeners, I hope you all, if you are not super familiar with the album, I hope you all go give it a chance.
• 57:40
  SPEAKER_01: I hope we've talked you into it at the very least.
• 57:43
  SPEAKER_01: If you are familiar, I hope you enjoyed our little recap.
• 57:46
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you all for tuning in, and until next time, take care of the video.