The face of real music, man…

[Video][Website]
[3.50]

Michaela Drapes: Conflicted. Potential reviews: 1) JOHN MAYER SEZ: DELETE YR TUMBLR! 2) Oh, how quaint! A self-actualizing country song. That’s not loaded. 3) Dear every woman ever who’s slept with John Mayer: Newsflash, he was disassociating the entire time. Sorry. 4) Is this a legit manifesto of a changed man, or digital download/pageview bait? Whatever the choice, “Shadow Days” rings incredibly hollow all over to my ears, but maybe that’s just all the therapy talking.
[3]

Andrew Ryce: Move over Eric Clapton, John Mayer’s set his sights on George Harrison now. The guitar in this is attractive and quite pretty — if not merely because it sounds exactly like Harrison — and the slightly catchy verses point toward a big chorus. Instead we get a whiny “insert-twang-here” wimp-out, with barely even a bassline to show for itself.
[4]

Brad Shoup: Beatley guitar homages occur often enough that they deserve their own stylistic category. Mayer rips off a couple fine Harrison tributes, as well as an acoustic figure that owes much to post-Fab Paul. For such a polished presentation, Mayer still allows some endearing slippage in the bottom of his range. Love the lap steel, as well: it ably insinuates itself into the apologia. This being Mayer, the song is still largely an exercise, but he’s still a lot sneakier than he needs to be.
[6]

John Seroff: Something potentially interesting could certainly kindle at the intersection of the 70’s Don Henley/Wings AM radio production of “Shadow Days” and the syrup-throated contemporary Mayer vocals, but it doesn’t. Both stay on their respective sides of the room, suspiciously eying one another until the whole enterprise mercifully grinds to an anticlimax.
[4]

Alfred Soto: Why on earth he assures he’s a good man with a good heart is beyond my power to compute, especially when fans love him for presenting himself as a pussyhound and simpleton too confused by the complexities of the world. Why he thinks this lethargic acoustic mid seventies Harrison drivel will warm the heart of anyone but whatever actor/actress he’s dating now should attract Norman Vincent Peale followers.
[3]

Anthony Easton: John Mayer is more interesting the more of an asshole he is. The less he is trying to convince us of his own earnestness, the more interested I am in his earnestness. This spends a lot of time trying to work out that he is a force for moral good, and we all know that’s not true.
[3]

Iain Mew: I actually quite enjoy the instrumental bit, but the smugness is overpowering otherwise. “I’m a good man with a good heart”? FUCK OFF, YOU DO NOT GET TO DECIDE THAT.
[1]

Jer Fairall: “I’m a good man, with a good heart,” says John Mayer in song, but in Rolling Stone he’s Jennifer Aniston’s ex with a racist penis. The problem isn’t that he’s an obnoxious asshole who happens to play a mean guitar, it’s how embarrassed he constantly seems about being that person on his records. Call it a failure of nerve, a failure of imagination or a failure of conviction; either way, he continues to be the Mitt Romney of music.
[4]