“The Search for Everything” Is Actually a Search for Completeness
John Mayer with his seventh studio album release, and it’s a disappointing one
John Mayer released his seventh studio album on Friday titled, The Search for Everything. The LP was actually super disappointing, in large part due to there only being four new songs on it. In November, Mayer released the single, “Love on the Weekend,” a California rock sounding song that was incredibly catchy and got every Mayer fan’s attention. He did a Facebook Live broadcast that afternoon saying that he would be releasing an album in early 2017, but that he had too many songs to put into one album, so there would be EP’s (or waves as he calls them) until he had a lower number of songs for the LP.
In January we were graced with The Search for Everything Wave One, with songs like “Moving on and Getting Over” and “You’re Gonna Live Forever in Me.” The four song EP was a glimpse of what was yet to be released, and of course I was on the hype train. I bought the Wave One shirt with Mayer’s face right on the front of it, and was more than excited for the next wave of four songs.
Wave Two dropped in February with another four songs, and a sister song of “Moving on and Getting Over” with “I Still Feel Like Like Your Man.” Another hit on the EP was “Emoji of a Wave,” the emotion of a break up with Katy Perry and a shoutout to iPhone’s and the obsessive use of emojis between iPhone users. Just like Wave One, Wave Two had two exceptional songs and two songs that were good, but weren’t on a higher level. The hype train for the full LP was faster than I could’ve ever imagined, and you can expect that I bought the Wave Two shirt from Mayer as well.
Mayer told us shortly after Wave Two was released that The Search for Everything LP would be released on April 14th, and my hype train was full speed ahead and counting down the days till the release. I figured it would be 14 new songs with more classic Mayer to jam to on road trips, but I awoke on Good Friday to a full LP with only four new songs. As you can probably tell, I was thoroughly disappointed because I expected to get much more.
One of the new songs on the LP is an interlude. An interlude was one of the new songs. John. Tell me what you were thinking in getting my hype train for an album so high only to give me three real songs and an interlude. The one thing that made this album better than it actually was is the fact that Kendrick Lamar released DAMN. on the same day.
Mayer started his The Search for Everything tour before the full LP was dropped, and will be touring again with Dead and Company this summer. The Search for Everything is a good LP, but in order for it to have been a great LP it needed 12 new songs, not 8 already released and four new with one being an interlude. Mayer was doing an impeccable job from November through February in getting everyone excited for the LP, but failed to reach the incredibly high expectations I had for one of my favorite artists.
The Search for Everything LP was like waking up on Christmas day when you asked for a real life pony, but ended up getting a My Little Pony toy set instead. That’s how I feel John Mayer, and I hope you read my disappointment.
Mayer’s fourth studio album was Battle Studies, a California rock album with many hits. The Search for Everything is another California rock album with a little more age, and still some great hits, but a release that was deeply upsetting. I’m still going to love John Mayer, but will never hype myself up for one of his albums again.
