John Mayer’s Sob Rock is a tightly cohesive record, stitching pain and heartache together with tenacity and hope. It seems like an eternity since I’ve been obsessed with an album, but the waiting is over because Sob Rock has been on repeat since it’s release on July 16, 2021.
I’ll be honest, I’ve always had a bit of a blasé attitude toward Mayer’s music…until now. Don’t get me wrong, certain songs have been stand outs for me over the years – “Gravity,” “In Repair,” “Who Says,” “Heartbreak Warfare,” but then came “New Light,” and “I Guess I Just Feel Like,” and “Carry Me Away,” and I was really digging the direction Mayer was going with his music.
When “Last Train Home” was released on 6/4/21, I started getting really excited. Even amid the controversy over Mayer putting three pre-released singles on the album, I felt an anticipation for an album release I hadn’t felt for decades. For me, “Last Train Home” was like that first hit that makes you just crave more.
By the time Sob Rock was released on 7/16/21, I was already in love with half of the album. Critics called Mayer “lazy,” I call Mayer a genius. When is the last time you loved half of the songs on any album? Those critics have been schooled, as Sob Rock rests comfortably in the #1 position of Billboards Top Album Sales Chart.
Step into Sob Rock, a beautiful universe that Mayer has created. Full of life lessons, bittersweet heartache and sad hope. Mayer wrote it with an older heart, that has loved and lost, but still believes there’s a love out there meant for him – something so many of us can relate to.
I see Sob Rock as a story of love and loss, hope and heartache. Every song is a chapter perfectly placed in that story. For once the advertisers got it right, it IS time to love an album again. #SobRock
