web analytics

Pop Rock Nation

Blog

  • The Best You’ve Never Heard: Wheel by John Mayer

    This series caused me quite a few headaches. I mean, how in the world was I going to pick ONE shoulda-been-a-hit song out of all the albums that I’ve digested over the years? When I first put pen to paper, I was going to go for the okey-doke and pick one of the million Michael Jackson or Prince songs that weren’t released as singles. Then I changed my mind and decided to go for something a little off the beaten path, like “Shiver” from Coldplay. Finally, I decided to settle on Wheel, for the simple fact that it’s probably the song that affects me most emotionally.

    John Mayer gets a bad rap. Maybe he started his career off as a Dave Matthews clone (and there’s nothing wrong with that-I love Dave), but at this point in the game, there’s no comparison between the two at all. While I roll my eyes at the Hollywood starlet-dating tabloid-friendly side of John, his music is good enough that I’ll forgive the obvious fact that he revels in being a “star” and enjoys all the trappings that come with.

    Wheel     is the final track from his excellent sophomore album, Heavier Things,and it’s based on a simple premise that I learned nearly twenty years ago from my 8th grade teacher, Mr. Waxman. If you put good in (or, in this case, love) it will eventually come back to you. It’s acted as a soothing balm during times of disappointment and heartbreak, and also keeps me firm in the belief that even goodbyes don’t necessarily last forever.

    If you never stop when you say goodbye/Give it time, you just might find/You will wave hello again

    It’s a little hokey, sure, but how many of us base our life philosophies on hokiness? I’d be willing to bet that most of us do.

    Wheel is a pretty lengthy acoustic ballad, and I’m not 100% sure it would have even been a radio hit had it been released, but then again I never figured Daughters (probably the worst song on Heavier Things) to be a huge hit either, much less a Grammy-winning Song of the Year. The imagery used in this song is almost cinematic, and I would’ve loved to have seen a video for Wheel. As it stands, though, it’s a forgotten album track buried at the end of John Mayer’s second album, and although I think the chance may have been missed to make this song a hit, that’s OK, because I can imagine the song is my little secret. Well, after I write this, it probably won’t be as much of a secret anymore, but you get what I’m saying, right?

    Columbia Records, methinks you missed out on a smash…or at least the opportunity to have John Mayer viewed as a stellar songwriter a short time before everyone caught on.

    More On “The Best You’ve Never Heard” week
    The Best You’ve Never Heard – Introduction

  • The Sunday Seven 11/9/08: That’s Where I Want To Be!!

    My intros suck…I’m still looking for guests for this column. Don’t be shy! I want to know what’s in your music collections! Anyhow, let’s continue moving through mine.

    1) Not for You by Pearl Jam: The Vitalogy album kinda marked the beginning of the “OK, Eddie Vedder, you’re trying a little too hard to be aloof and counter-culture” period. I remember seeing him on the Grammys one year after he won the award and he said something like (I’m paraphrasing, forgive me) “We don’t understand the meaning of shows like this” or some crap like that, and I was like “then WHY are you here accepting an award?”. Sheesh. Anyway, great song, pretty good album. I love Vedder when he screams. He’s actually got a very soulful voice. I miss my copy of Vitalogy on vinyl.

    I say Eddie, Dave Grohl and Chris Cornell challenge one another to a scream-off.

    (more…)

  • Ne-Yo Wants Usher To Focus

    The latest from MTV.com is that Usher’s going to drop a new album next year. But what about Here I Stand, which dropped in late May just this year? Personally, I thought the album was above average, but lacked that extra Usher something. Money Mike and I discussed this when we talked about commercial R&B in 2008.

    Usher says that Ne-Yo will be a part of the new project and Ne-Yo had a lot to say about Usher’s latest work.

    Well, I was one of the first people to tell Usher, personally, that I didn’t think he was focused on the album … on Here I Stand. I don’t think his focus was in the right place. And I’m a dude, and that’s my personal opinion and I’m entitled to it, and he respected that I kept it real with him about that. I think that this time around … It’s not so much that I think Here I Stand was a bad record, it just wasn’t the Usher that we remembered. I mean, that joint [Confessions] right there went 10-15 million worldwide, so it was going to be difficult to come back from that anyway. So I just think he’s gotta get back to what he knows, which is to get out there and make ’em dance — entertain them at the end of the day. Like, it seems like he had a lot to say, almost like he had something to prove with the Here I Stand record. Like a different dude now: ‘I got a family now, and this is who I am.’ As opposed to before, when it was about, ‘I’mma get up and entertain y’all. I’m gonna sing songs that got something to say, but at the same time, I’m gonna entertain y’all.’ And I think he just needs to get back there. And I think that’s where he’ll wind up.

    To shorten what he said, it sounds to me that he just didn’t think the album was hot, no matter what the themes were. And I think that’s what I was getting at. Musically, Here I Stand was fine. But it wasn’t hot. There wasn’t anything on that record that made you stand up and listen.

    But what Ne-Yo didn’t say was that he made the album Usher was striving for. If you haven’t heard to Year Of The Gentleman, check it out. It’s a more maturely written record on the relationships vibe than Usher’s was.

    Photo by monstershaq2000 shared via creative commons