John Mayer: Born and Raised

Genre(s): Country, Folk, Rock
Release Date: May 22, 2012

I have to admit, it took me a while to brave this latest release from John Mayer. After Continuum and Where the Light Is, I thought I was looking at the next Stevie Ray Vaughn. In previous work, John Mayer has come up as a young man with more soul and guts than we've seen from any artists in 20-30 years. His next attempt, Battles Studies, was hit or miss. The song with Taylor Swift was definitely a miss, that's for sure. When I saw the promo picks for Born and Raised with Mayer in a cowboy hat, I have to admit, I was scared. I did not wait 2 years for one of my favorite artists to for sake the blues and turn country on me.

Finally, I sat down and gave the album a chance. I mean, REALLY gave the album a chance. I listened to the melodies, read through the lyrics, and really took the album in. Just listening at face value, it sounds like a country album. A slightly low-key Nashville hopeful. However, if you dig a little deeper, and look at the lyrics, you'll find that Mayer really bares his soul in these lyrics. After his antics with interviews in Rolling Stone and Playboy, followed by 2 years of dead silence to the media, Mayer has finally found an "appropriate" outlet. He addresses his insecurities, fears, and mistakes, without calling out anyone else. (This isn't a quality that Taylor Swift could boast. Maybe she'll take a page out of Mayer's book and stop writing songs with her ex's names in them.)

I think that Mayer's hit single, "Shadow Days," was brilliantly titled, packaged, videoed, recorded, and marketed. For the past 2 years, Mayer has lived in the shadows, and prefers it that way. In his most recent interview with Rolling Stone, he shows that he doesn't expect to return to the limelight, dating the photog's favorite starlets. Mayer has packed his bags and moved to Montana, and will likely spend quite a while in the Big Sky Country, recording , but not playing the media's games. Lyrics like, "I'm a good man with a good heart/Had a tough time, got a rough start/But I finally learned to let it go" are really turning him into an open book. Not in the way that Twitter or media frenzy did while he dated one hot blonde after another, but in the way that he better understands himself, and where he went wrong.

Born and Raised reads like an apology to the masses. An apology to the fans for only putting half of his heart into Battles Studies. An apology to the great musicians he's been compared to, for not living up to their good names. An apology to the media for his absence. And an apology to anyone else who doesn't like it.

Instead of ruining the album with "spoilers," instead I invite you to track down the jacket notes (digital or the actual CD) and read it for yourself. Maybe then you'll see this as more than just another country album. Like many of the great before him, Mayer has undergone his first major resurrection. And it is a success.

The Rocket Summer: Life Will Write the Words

Genre(s): Pop, Indie, Rock
Release Date: June 5, 2012

The Rocket Summer, a.k.a. Bryce Avary, has branched out with his own label, Aviate Records. Life Will Write the Words arguably has a higher recording and production quality than anything he released on S/R/E Records or Island Def Jam. This isn't surprising, as Avary has been writing and composing every song he's recorded, and played every instrument to boot. Adding successful producer and record label owner to his resume is the logical next step, and this album clearly shows that.

For a few weeks now, we've had our hands on the first single, "Run and Don't Stop." The only bad thing I can say about this song is that it sounds like it could easily fit on Do You Feel, which means it sounds like something we've already heard. Still, you can't deny the quality of every song he puts out. Also, it's refreshing to hear love songs with a clean mindset; instead of listening to pop/punk/indie bands lusting after the girls they can't get, we get to hear Avary sing about how wonderful it is to be married to the best girl. In my opinion, that is much more swoon-worthy than anything Fall Out Boy could put together.

One song really stuck out as different from the normal, but I couldn't tell if this was a "good" normal or a "bad" normal. "Just For a Moment Forget Who You Are" sounds like it was written for someone else. The chord progression and arrangement sound more like something off of Daughtry's albums, or maybe a cast aside track from Goo Goo Dolls. It's almost like Avary forgot who he was for a moment, which is a shame, because he's one of the most original acts out there on the indie scene. 

I have to admit that I always look forward to the slow songs on Avary's albums. So, naturally, I was disappointed to wait 9 tracks to hear it. "Soldiers" did not disappoint. Avary delivers the passion, emotion, and quality I've come to expect from him in this track. If everything else on the album sounds like something I've heard before, this track makes up for it. The slow songs that Avary chooses for each album are the moments when he lets his heart bleed. For those who remember, "Christmas Present" off of Hello Good Friend could guilt a mass murderer into surrendering, or a billionaire into building a homeless shelter. "Soldier" blurs the lines between spiritual warfare and wars of flesh and blood, and the losses in both, with lyrics like "And in heaven, maybe he's/Smiling down on me/But behind those doors of my heart, I am crying/If I said it was easy always, I'd be lying." Heaven help you if you can't relate to that.

Overall, this is an album worth picking up. The upbeat tracks make a perfect summer soundtrack, and the depth of the lyrics will tug at your heart and your conscience better than most of the junk that the indie pop/punk genre has been throwing at us for the past 10 years. Life Will Write the Words is a sweet treat that you won't have to feel guilty about, and is sure to keep you in a good mood. But you'll be hard pressed to find an album from Avary that isn't. With a new label, I'm excited to see what else he puts out.