LIVE YOUR LIFE ON YOUR TERMS

John Mayer: Who Says
From Who Says (Digital Single) (Sony/Columbia, 2009)

It's not often anymore that you get a sub-three minute radio single, especially a lead single from a major artist on a major label. So if you're going to make such a song, make the most of the time you get. Mayer does that exceptionally well in this introspective stripped down effort. It's reminiscent of “Stop This Train” from Continuum from a songwriting sense, both very James Taylor-ish in their hushed tone.

The lyrics sound as if he's writing/singing this song to himself, especially in this clever line:

I don't remember you looking any better
But then again I don't remember you

Given his public romances over the past few years, it's a fitting lyric for him to look in the mirror and note not remembering seeing just himself. Aside from the supposed controversy of a repeated line throughout, “Who says I cant get stoned?” (which Mayer himself has even said isn't about marijuana but about the freedom of living your life), it's a real winner of a song and shows a tenderness that he has hit upon more than once in his career. I found myself listening to “Who Says” for about an hour straight this past week, something I've never done with any song before.