Like Neon

So, John Mayer’s got a new album coming out on November 17, called Battle Studies. I’m currently a little slow on the Mayer front, because, as some of you know, I broke up with him about six months to a year back due to his incessantly pretentious tweets. This probably sounds silly to a lot of you, but it broke my heart, it really truly did. It’s difficult for me to articulate how important John and his music have been to me, but suffice it to say, that whole “his music helped me through the worst period of my life” cliche is soundly true for me. Not only have I refused to renew my membership to his fan club, I went at least six months unable to listen to him—I was that upset over what I, as a long time and extremely dedicated fan, perceived as a shift in his personality due to stardom.

But I digress. He’s got a new album coming out. One song has been officially released and another has just leaked. They’re okay songs. Very Mayer, despite his insistance that he’s gone in a different direction with this album. “Who Says?” has a Paul Simon sort of feel to it; “Heartbreak Warfare” is just straight-up filler Mayer—That is, the sort of songs we fans enjoy, but don’t really stand out on the album.

My initial reaction to “Who Says?” wasn’t good. The thing about John that I’ve always loved most and that I’ve always felt he was gifted at is lyrics, and, well… let’s just say he’s certainly doing a good job of proving that I was right about his being pretentious. When combined with the video for the song, I truly boggle at who he has become. EW’s Leah Greenblatt summed up my feelings perfectly with this wry bit of commentary:

Being John Mayer is hard work, kids. Beautiful, famous women constantly need to be dated and dumped; double-fisting Grammy awards really starts to tax the biceps; and somebody’s got to threaten to sodomize all those pesky editors, right?

Sometimes, a man just needs to get stoned. Call up a girl he used to know. Also, according to the new video for “Who Says,” he has to pick up the check.

I think the most upsetting aspect of that video is that it begins so innocently. At first I thought that this was going to be a video about how stardom has left a bitter taste in his mouth and he now prefers the more simple things like staying home and playing his guitar. But no. What could have been a poignant glimpse into a more humble side of Mayer turned into a masturbatory slide show: Wow, John, it’s so difficult when you’re famous and people expect you to, oh, be conscientious and aware of your actions. Being glamorous and going out to parties with the rich and famous must be so awful for you. We’re not as special and talented as you, so you’d better write us a song to explain.

It was John Mayer’s humility that initially drew me to his music, his ability to connect with me as a human being that made his songs so intensely important to me, and I can’t help feeling that somewhere along the way, that got lost. At long last, he is finally becoming the trite adult contemporary fodder he’s always been accused of, and it makes me more sad than I can possibly say. You helped me when I needed it, John, and for that I will always wish you only the best of everything, but you disappoint and embarrass me, and I sincerely hope that sooner than later, you have the epiphany that puts your feet back on the ground again because I hate who you’ve become.