John Mayer’s long-awaited album Sob Rock is here.
Ahead of the project’s arrival, Mayer sat down with Zane Lowe, where the musician explained where he drew inspiration from while creating the album. He said that the pandemic gave him space to experiment and make a “provocative” and “antagonizing” record.
“You may just have to dress up your intentions to make something different. And call it by a name that no one else is going to call it after it’s made, and for me it was like, ‘I want to get in trouble. I want someone to tell me this is shit,’” he said.
He continued, “And I made a record that, to me at the time, only in a way to coax something out of me that I wouldn’t have normally done, shitpost a record. It’s called Sob Rock because it’s a shitpost. But more importantly, it’s what I thought was a shitpost, and this gets down to where artists sit in front of you and play you what they think is their garbage, and you go, ‘That’s the best thing I ever heard you play.’ It makes a mockery of their interpretation of the experience, which is just enough to break out of the mold and make something unique.”
The singer released the album’s lead single “Last Train Home” at the beginning of June, as part of a new EP that included previously released songs “New Light” from 2018 and “I Guess I Just Feel Like” and “Carry Me Away” from 2019.
Sob Rock is Mayer’s eighth full-length album and arrives four years after 2017’s The Search for Everything.
The 43-year-old artist also announced the Sob Rock Tour, which begins in February 2022. You can learn more about it via Mayer’s official website.
Stream Sob Rock below and check out the Mathew Miguel Cullen-directed music video for “Shot in the Dark” up top.
