It's my opinion and I'm sticking to it...

Did I mention that back in December I happened to win a gift stocking full of CD's from the fabulous radio station in town? (I checked my posts for December/Jan, so apparently I didn't.)

And by full I mean not 1, not 2, not 5, but 7 or 8 (if I remember correctly...it's been a while) albums by different artists, some I was familiar with, and some I'd never heard of but was excited to listen to because this station plays such a great range of indy/commercial/classic music.

Anyway, the point of this is that one of the CD's was the newest John Mayer album, Continuum (I'm not sure which version, it might have been the deluxe, but is probably the regular). I've liked the singles from him I've heard on the radio, so I was interested to hear the CD. I put it in my car's six-disc changer, so it was waiting for me when I was ready. (The car is the only place I listen to music, at home it's all TV.)

And before I go any further, in the interest of full disclosure, unlike some, I've never been crazy about any musical group. And by crazy I mean (1) driven to collect and dissect every release whether legal or bootlegged, or (2) obsessed to the point of fits of screaming and frenzy when attending a live show. Actually I don't like live shows all that much due to how the noise from the crowd affects my enjoyment of the music, and that music live never sounds the same as on a record/tape/cd. Not that I am criticizing anyone who reacts that way, it's just not me. I enjoy music, I just don't live it. Now back to the point of this...

The John Mayer CD made me want to shoot something. Me, him, anything to stop the horror. I barely got through it the first time. And even that was helped by being able to skip ahead to the next track. To be fair, I left in my CD changer and gave it a couple more shots over the next month or so, but it just wasn't getting any better. The few tracks I liked were the ones that had been released, and they definitely had more pep to them. The rest of the tracks made me cringe. So, being that it's still a free country (that's a debate for another time and place), I removed the CD from my changer and put something else in.*

Now, given that he is so popular, am I un-American for not embracing all of his music? Am I a philistine for not appreciating the wonder of his voice? Or, you could reassure me that I am not the only one who feels this way!





*Without looking for sure, my changer currently holds 2 of the 4 discs from Jimmy Buffett's Boats, Beaches, Bars, and Ballad's album, the Ace of Base's Greatest Hits, Bob Marley (it's a hit's album, I think), and a couple of other discs I can't remember (maybe it's time to take them out and put something new in?). Much like my preference for light and fluffy reading material, I like to have light and fluffy music at my fingertips when the radio isn't doing it for me.