Best Songs of 2009 – #8
John Mayer’s Continuum (2006) was a tough act to follow and he wasn’t quite up to the task with 2009’s Battle Studies. The album was solid and at times inspired but it didn’t break any ground.
Now, it’s probably not fair to expect artists to break new ground or constantly top themselves, and Battle Studies is certainly a solid effort, so don’t read this as a shot at Mayer. I just know what he’s capable of and I think on this album he was taking some plays off, so to speak.
That said, he did deliver on several tracks, my favorite being ‘Half of My Heart,’ a Fleetwood Mac homage featuring Taylor Swift on backing vocals. This is the sort of pop songwriting that never gets the credit it deserves, as if any old fool off the street can dream up a guitar hook and melody that carve themselves into your brain on one listen. I love good pop songwriters, and Mayer is one of the best.
Free to roam, made a home out of everywhere I’ve been
Then you come crashing in like the realest thing
Trying my best to understand all that your love can bring
Oh, half of my heart’s got a grip on the situation
Half of my heart takes time
Half of my heart’s got a right mind to tell you that
I can’t keep loving you (can’t keep loving you)
Oh, with half of my heart
I was made to believe I’d never love somebody else
Made a plan, stay the man who could only love himself
Lonely was the song I sang ’til the day you came
Showing me another way and all that my love can bring
Oh, half of my heart’s got a grip on the situation
Half of my heart takes time
Half of my heart’s got a right mind to tell you that
I can’t keep loving you (can’t keep loving you)
Oh with half of my heart, with half of my heart
Your faith is strong but I can only fall short for so long
Down the road, later on
You will hate that I never gave more to you
Than half of my heart
But I can’t stop loving you (I can’t stop loving you)
I can’t stop loving you (I can’t stop loving you)
I can’t stop loving you with half of my heart
Oh, half of my heart
Half of my heart’s got a real good imagination
Half of my heart’s got you
Half of my heart’s got a right mind to tell you that
Half of my heart won’t do
Half of my heart is a shotgun wedding
To a bride with a paper ring
But half of my heart is the part of a man
Who’s never truly loved anything
Half of my heart
Oh half of my heart
Half of my heart
Oh half of my heart
Meet Me In Montauk 
I’m sorry, I just don’t get the praise for Mayer. I have never heard anything so inspired, groundbreaking or original from him. I thought his first hit “No Such Thing” was clever enough, but I’ve been mostly indifferent, and at times annoyed, by his music. I found “Your Body is A Wonderland”: to be sophomoric crap, as was “Daughters” Didn’t like the pedantic “Waiting for the World to Change” and found “Gravity” stupid as well. Found “Dreaming with a Broken Heart” boring as hell and don’t even get me started on “Say,’ possibly the most redundant song I have ever heard. It makes Sting’s “We’ll Be Together Tonight” ending seem mercifully short by comparison. So, if any of those four aforementioned songs are remotely demonstrative of the supposedly brilliant Continuum, thanks but not thanks.
Why don’t you tell us how you really feel? 🙂
And this from the man who put Jack Johnson on his best-of-the-decade list!
There goes Dana sugar coating things again!! 😉
I have always liked what I heard from John Mayer on the radio, but never enough to buy any of his cds. When I first head the song “Say” I had the same reaction as Dana; I thought there couldn’t be a more pointless or redundant song in the world. That said, after giving it a good listen and really hearing the lyrics, it hit me in a different way (I actually tear up every time I hear it – go ahead, have a chuckle…). I agree that it could be a little shorter at the end, but the overall song is good. 🙂
This year for Christmas a friend of mine gave me all of his cds to hear what else I’ve been missing. Just starting to get through them, but I can say that I do like the sound of this song and the new one that’s playing on the radio “Heartbreak Warfare.”
I find this song sort of clever. By playing on one of the most trite expressions in the English language (loving someone with all of your heart), Mayer is creating a provocative examination of what happens when the committment isn’t quite that deep. It’s not as thought the “half” that is in love doesn’t mean it; it’s just that the other “half” matters just as much. It’s not brain surgery or rocket science, but it’s clever, and even a bit charming.
As for the other songs Dana bashes, I don’t find “Your Body is a Wonderland” or “Daughters” to be sophomoric or “Waiting on the World to Change” to be pedantic. I happen to like all of those songs (not that I’d argue that any of them is particularly groundbreaking, but that’s never been the measure of success for a song in my book. I like plenty of music that treads familiar ground). I have gone on record (here 🙂 saying that I can’t stand “Say,” and he lost a lot of good will I might have otherwise had towards him between that song and hurting poor Jennifer Aniston. Still, listening to this song, I kind of forgive him for the whole Aniston thing 🙂