John Mayer ended his long career with Columbia Records with his eighth album, Sob Rock.
Videos by American Songwriter
A heavy dose of ’80s nostalgia wraps Mayer’s smooth rock in Slowhand shoulder pads, neon synths, and the kind of breezy grooves that’ll put pleats in your pants.
Undeniably cozy, “New Light” appeared in 2018 but wasn’t announced as part of a larger album. Mayer trickled out new singles while Columbia Records teased the larger project.
Mayer was 40 by “New Light’s” release and still struggling to settle down.
I Can See You in a New Light
“New Light” follows Mayer as he tries to move a relationship past the “friend zone,” and he does his best to convince the girl to give him “just one night.”
I’m the boy in your other phone
Lighting up inside your drawer at home all alone
Pushing 40 in the friend zone
We talk and then you walk away every day
It’s a summer love song, so Mayer rides up to Malibu, but he knows her friends’ suspicions about him. There’s an implied backstory there, and Mayer needs to convince the girl that he’s not a bad guy.
Take a ride up to Malibu
I just wanna sit and look at you, look at you
What would it matter if your friends knew
Who cares what other people say anyway
Sob Rock and Hip-Hop
Mayer produced and co-wrote this smooth disco track with hip-hop producer No ID (born Ernest Wilson) and premiered the song with Zane Lowe on Beats 1 (now Apple Music).
No ID’s “woozy” loop inspired Mayer to pick up his guitar and write, and the producer then created a beat using a vintage LinnDrum (heard frequently on Prince and Michael Jackson’s records).
Mayer is supported by legendary bassist Pino Palladino (The Who, Nine Inch Nails, D’Angelo) and one of the planet’s most in-demand drummers, Aaron Sterling (Taylor Swift, Harry Styles, Lana Del Rey).
Prince’s Guitar Appears
Surprisingly, during the session, someone arrived at the studio with Prince’s guitar. It remained at the studio for an hour, and Mayer used it to track the bridge’s purple-inspired guitar part.
Working with a loop, Mayer wanted to insert new “events” to take the song’s feel away from the four-bar repetition. Mixing real players with machines added imperfections to the track’s taut rhythm.
Low-Budget Video
Though the recording sounds expensive, Fatal Farm directed a “cheap” video for “New Light.” Mayer explained on Instagram he “needed to make a video for ‘New Light,’ but nobody could agree on a budget, so I went to a place downtown and made this with a company that usually does birthday and bar mitzvah videos.”
The cheeky video opens with Mayer dressed in pajamas and a purple hoodie. After saying he’s ready to be a star, Mayer begins dancing in front of a green screen and singing on a farm, in front of the Eiffel Tower, and on a ski slope.
It all fits with Mayer’s well-orchestrated yachty-rollout for Sob Rock. To surround himself with all things uncool, Mayer launched a new guitar with Paul Reed Smith, leaving behind his days of vintage Fender Stratocasters.
Furthermore, at moments during the Sob Rock Tour, Mayer swapped his new signature PRS Silver Sky for a pink, very pointy Jackson guitar. It echoed Rivers Cuomo’s Randy Rhoads Jackson Flying V moment on the Hella Mega Tour with Weezer, Green Day, and Fall Out Boy.
A New Way to Release Music
Still, “New Light” wasn’t Mayer’s highest-charting single. But it surpassed his more popular hits (“Gravity,” “Waiting on the World to Change,” “Slow Dancing in a Burning Room,” and “Your Body Is a Wonderland”) on Spotify.
And Mayer launched a TikTok account to promote the album with guitar lessons and ’80s-themed videos.
Columbia Records engineered a 1980s marketing campaign and placed posters in cities around the world describing the sound of Sob Rock but without attaching it to Mayer’s name.
Soon, sobrock.net emerged online with a newsletter and an old-style zine mailed to fans. Three years after “New Light,” Sob Rock arrived and reached No. 2 on the Billboard 200.
Legacy Act
John Mayer is settling into life as a legacy act. After leaving Columbia Records, he booked a solo acoustic tour without an album to promote, which was a gesture of resignation to his new career status.
As a result, “New Light” is a wistful transition to Mayer’s next chapter as a nostalgia act.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.
Photo by Jason Kempin/Getty Images
