#486: John Mayer, ‘Continuum’

Columbia, 2006

The first time I got dumped was when I was about 22 years old. It was a short relationship but the fallout was slow and painful. The breakup lasted about twice as long as the actual dating.

This was the first time I understood what it felt like to be rejected and pushed away. It was the first time I was introduced to my own toxic behavior. We just kept having breakup chats over and over. And then there were the flirtations that killed chances for the other person to move on.

I remember there were very long nights of me listening to the song, “Slow Dancing In A Burning Room” on repeat.

Yeah, yeah, yeah -- very dramatic.

I like how the lyrics go, “but my dear, we’re slow dancing in a burning room.” I like the “my dear.” I have no good reasons for it, nothing interesting to note about it other than I like it.

The other thing I like about this song is the little guitar ditty from 3:28 to 3:40. I think about that a lot.

This album came out when I was 14, around the time when my friends, myself included, started cringing at John Mayer. Around this album, John Mayer became a casualty to the fragility of my teen ego.

I carried that fragility into that first relationship and missed out on a lot of good music.

That boy I dated would have cringed so hard that I was listening to John Mayer. If we were still dating, I would have lied and agreed that John Mayer is overrated.

I am a new woman now. John Mayer is not overrated. This is a good album. John Mayer is good at what he does and I am grateful for this album.

Featured are photos of 23-year-old Nicolle while I was in the thick of it. I was on a cruise stressing about wifi so I could keep talking breakup with that boy.

Top songs: Slow Dancing In A Burning Room