1:30 AM. Can't sleep, but Tim is - except when he's rustling about his bed. 9:30 class tomorrow, his at 8:00. Feeling sympathetic, so I'm using my laptop to write instead of my noisy desktop - which also means I've sacrificed listening to my brand new John Mayer CD, bought at midnight at Tower Records down on the Drag. Here's my mini-review after the first three tracks:
A big deal was made about the fact that the album's produced by Jack Joseph Puig, and it shows from the very first strains. The quality of the sound is very reminiscent of one band from my junior high days he was also responsible for - Tonic. Suddenly, the guitar is drowned out by the use of extra instruments (Clarity has a major trumpet part, and one of the other songs has a lot of organ involved) and bass is downplayed in favor of powerful treble (which equates for loud drum cymbals). It's an enjoyable sound, but really not one befitting JM's guy-and-a-guitar upbringing. Of the first four tracks, the lead song Clarity is probably most like his original style: quiet, introspective, with a flavor of improvisation and jazz chords. Bigger Than My Body follows, which despite Mayer's louder, bolder styling and Puig's aggressive mixing sounds like something Mayer would write and play. Then follows Something's Missing, an older song which finally made its way into the studio. No surprises here.
I also heard a part of the album version of Daughters, a song which Mayer has included in his live repertoire for some time. The biggest change here is the decidedly not-live sound of the guitar, one which is typically very clean on the stage. Mayer's vocal work has come a long way from his humble beginnings of a simple guitarist who could barely sing a note. Given his countless sold-out performances, it's clear he's had time to smooth over the edges and his vocal chords are controlled with almost as much precision and grace as his guitar. In this album, he's really hit a higher level of vocalization: still no belting out of his trademark hushed baritone, but his range has risen immensely to hold great falsetto which he uses on several songs - especially Bigger Than My Body.
But one other thing really troubles me: women. The more I write friends and call family members to tell them of my happiness with the opposite sex, the more I come to realize I'm really getting nowhere. I see people joining together all around me and I figure I've got something good enough going for me to land a calm, comfortable relationship. Nope. I've had one prospect after another fizzle out, or show herself to be psychotic, or boring as hell, or worse, interested in someone else. I hit two low points in one day: first off, an old friend of mine (who I really turned to many times for her staunch reluctance to drink) had a sorority chant about chuggin' beer in her AOL profile. Fine, so in college everyone drinks. Hell, I do. But to see the sweetest girl I've ever known become just another drunken party chick is a big downer for me - it's like the whole party aura is so strong that nobody can resist it. Then I realized I had lived for two weeks leaving another very sweet girl behind: a friend from orientation named Sophie (again, the out-of-state one, not our lovable Soph linked at right). So I thought about it and realized maybe I had been too forward when I first went to visit her and so I was in the doghouse for being a bad boy. I wrote a note of apology and dragged it along in my pocket to Jester to visit another orientation friend named Bailie (who turned out to be somewhat boring, but I'll hang out with her again for her love of good movies and anime). I figured once I left Bailie's room I'd slip the note under Sophie's door and run on home. Instead, I knocked on her door and she answered. With another guy scrambling from her bed over to her desk chair in the background, and her in pajamas. As soon as I saw that I realized it had already been way too late for me. So after some short small talk I got the hell out, unable to find a song that fit the mood - the mood that you just found a girl you really liked in bed with another dude.
I can't figure out what's going on. I find it hard to believe that all these girls I like are hypocritical in nature to a fault. Here I thought I had figured out when I could tell I was making mistakes. And I know that it's just plain wrong to become a chauvinist and blindly distrust every female who comes along for the rest of my life (I mean, moreso than I already do). So I'm giving up. And as soon as that thought occurred to me, I thought of just the right song:
Someday I'll fly
Someday I'll soar
Someday I'll be so damn much more
Cause I'm bigger than my body gives me credit for