‘Shadow Days’ is a song that wrestles with, and overcomes, past wrongs.
The scope of the song is too broad to be about one incident or one person (i.e. Taylor Swift, Jennifer Aniston, “David Duke cock” comment). Rather, those kinds of things contributed to the “Hard times” John has experienced. The song is hopeful in that those ‘hard times’ have allowed John to attain self-clarity and, more importantly, self-forgiveness and self-acceptance.
I anticipate “Born and Raised” to be an album that returns to these themes of exploration and forgiveness.
As an aside, I think the ‘organic cowboy’ aesthetic makes sense. For the past several years, Mayer has been renouncing social media. Since he was young he has struggled with anxiety, and I think the pressure of being constantly “plugged-in” inflamed that anxiety. Counter-intuitively, I think he responded to this pressure by being hyperbolically open with the public (see. Mayer’s Playboy interview). The archetypical cowboy is only true to himself, and indifferent to the pressures of society. It makes sense that Mayer would adopt the cowboy aesthetic. Not to mention, the country-folk genre boasts a rich and beautiful assortment of sounds, melodies, and instruments from which to choose.
‘Shadow Days’ is a song that wrestles with, and overcomes, past wrongs. The scope of the song is too broad to be about one incident or one person (i.e. Taylor Swift, Jennifer Aniston, “David Duke cock” comment). Rather, those kinds of things contributed to the “Hard times” John has experienced. The song is hopeful in that those ‘hard times’ have allowed John to attain self-clarity and, more importantly, self-forgiveness and self-acceptance. I anticipate “Born and Raised” to be an album that returns to these themes of exploration and forgiveness.
As an aside, I think the ‘organic cowboy’ aesthetic makes sense. For the past several years, Mayer has been renouncing social media. Since he was young he has struggled with anxiety, and I think the pressure of being constantly “plugged-in” inflamed that anxiety. Counter-intuitively, I think he responded to this pressure by being hyperbolically open with the public (see. Mayer’s Playboy interview). The archetypical cowboy is only true to himself, and indifferent to the pressures of society. It makes sense that Mayer would adopt the cowboy aesthetic. Not to mention, the country-folk genre boasts a rich and beautiful assortment of sounds, melodies, and instruments from which to choose.