Thoughts on John Mayer

I'm not exactly sure when it happened, but somewhere along the way, a whole lot of people starting hating on John Mayer. There was a time when we all wanted our bodies to be his wonderland and we ran through our halls of our high schools screaming at the top of our lungs and then suddenly we stopped. Perhaps it was because it turns out he is kind of a douche bag in real life, the way he grew out his hair and looked a little less idealistic or his long hiatus between major public projects (his John Mayor Trio was amazing but not nearly as popular). Or maybe I am wrong and we are not all hating on John and my observations are a result of living in a hipster-heavy town. Still, no one seemed to be crying when he backed out of SXSW for vocal problems, even the out of towners.

The thing is, I love John Mayer. I love his old songs, I loved his trio project, I love his new work and collaborations. The guy is a seriously great musician and I am anxiously awaiting his vocal recovery and new album. In fact, while he is recovering, he put together this little gem. Check him out covering Lana Del Rey's "Video Games".

Thoughts on Lana Del Rey

Everyone seems to be weighing in on the controversial singer, Lana Del Rey, especially after her less than stellar SNL performance a few weeks back. Even Liz Phair wrote an op-ed piece for the Wall Street Journal this week in defense of the artist, so it's probably time I gave my two cents. I am not entirely a hater, nor am I in any way going to jump to her defense. 

In regards to her music, Lana is all right. She has a few catchy tunes that I don't mind singing along to when they come on the radio. Her album as a whole is nothing special and certainly not worth buying beyond perhaps those few catchy songs. Thank goodness for itunes, right? Why she thought it was appropriate to rap on her album, though is beyond me and evidence that if anything, Lana Del Rey is still entirely amateur. Which is not to say that this is a bad thing. Plenty of artists need an album or two to come into their own and I wouldn't put it past Lana to pull that off. I hope she does. 

What I have a hard time with is her performance. For starters, she had no business being on SNL in the first place. There are some out of control talented, kick ass, amazing women making music right now that not only have the talent, but the confidence and performance chops to hold their own on any stage and I'm disappointed one of them wasn't pitched. They are women who have been collecting miles as they have toured across the country and beyond and earned their way into our hearts. Certainly a performance of that magnitude can be scary, but that's her job as a performer. She should have waited until she had a few more performances under her belt before taking on something she clearly wasn't ready for. 

Still, despite this decision and unfortunate performance, it has certainly put her name out there in a major way and will probably sell more albums. In the end, that's a huge part of making it in the industry, but I'm not sure it will help her last. I am disappointed that she pulled out of SXSW. I was looking forward to see her performance skills on a smaller scale and hoping she would rise to the occasion.