''The Search for Everything'' is the seventh

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

by American singer-songwriter

John Mayer John Clayton Mayer ( ; born October 16, 1977) is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Born and raised in Fairfield County, Connecticut, Mayer attended Berklee College of Music in Boston, but left and moved to Atlanta in 1997 with ...

, released on April 14, 2017 by

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music, Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Sony. It was founded on Janua ...

. It is a loose concept album based on the emotions and thoughts of dealing with a break-up: opening with the initial break-up, and closing with the girl getting married.

Promotion

Extended plays

''The Search for Everything'' was preceded by the release of two EPs each featuring four new songs from the album. The album's lead single, " Love on the Weekend", was released on November 17, 2016. The first wave, '' The Search for Everything: Wave One'', released on January 20, 2017. The second wave, '' The Search for Everything: Wave Two'' was released on February 24, 2017.

Tour and live performances

On January 30, 2017, John Mayer announced his headlining arena tour, The Search for Everything World Tour, which took place in North America in 2017. On February 24, Mayer announced 30 more tour dates. On December 6, 2016, Mayer performed the album's

lead single A lead single (also known as a debut single) is the first single to be released from a studio album by an artist or a band, usually before the album itself is released and also occasionally on the same day of the album's release date. Release s ...

" Love on the Weekend" on ''

The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon ''The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon'' is an American late-night talk show hosted by Jimmy Fallon that airs on NBC. The show premiered on February 17, 2014, and is produced by Broadway Video and Universal Television. It is the seventh incar ...

''. On February 24, Mayer performed "Moving On and Getting Over" on ''

The Ellen DeGeneres Show ''The Ellen DeGeneres Show'' (often shortened to ''Ellen'' or ''The Ellen Show'') is an American daytime television variety comedy talk show that was created and hosted by its namesake Ellen DeGeneres. Debuting on September 8, 2003, it was prod ...

''. On February 28, he performed the single "Still Feel Like Your Man" on ''

Jimmy Kimmel Live! ''Jimmy Kimmel Live!'' is an American late-night talk show, created and hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, broadcast on American Broadcasting Company, ABC. The nightly hour-long show debuted on January 26, 2003, at Hollywood Masonic Temple in Hollywood, Los ...

''. Mayer announced in early 2019 that he will be taking ''The Search for Everything'' on tour again. Mayer announced seven Asian tour dates, nine European dates and 32 US dates spanning from March to October 2019.

Critical reception

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, ''The Search for Everything'' has an

average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7, ...

score of 61, which indicates "generally favorable reviews" based on 4 reviews.

Stephen Thomas Erlewine Stephen Thomas Erlewine (; born June 18, 1973) is an American music critic and senior editor for the online music database AllMusic. He is the author of many artist biographies and record reviews for AllMusic, as well as a freelance writer, occ ...

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

gave it 4.5 out of 5 stars, commenting "Although it's ostensibly a breakup album, The Search for Everything doesn't feel haunted: Mayer glides through the record so smoothly, the supple sound seems almost insouciant. It is also quite alluring. " Jim Farber of ''

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cul ...

'' called it "the most deeply personal album Mayer has ever released", giving it B+ while stating "if mellowness remains Mayer’s weakness, the brilliance of his best compositions provides a worthy trade-off".

Robert Christgau Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most well-known and influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and ...

gave this album a two-star honorable mention: "If you wonder why women fall for a guy with his romantic history, listen to his songs with an open mind", highlighting "Love on the Weekend" and "Never on the Day You Leave". However, Alex McLevy of ''

The A.V. Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cre ...

'' gave the album a D, stating "John Mayer loses all trace of anything interesting". The 4.9 out of 10 review from Katherine St. Asaph of ''

Pitchfork A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to th ...

'' was also unfavorable, saying the album is "pleasantly bland".

Commercial performance

''The Search for Everything'' debuted at number two on the US ''Billboard'' 200 with 132,000

album-equivalent unit The album-equivalent unit, or album equivalent, is a measurement unit in music industry to define the consumption of music that equals the purchase of one album copy. This consumption includes streaming and song downloads in addition to traditi ...

s, of which 120,000 were pure album sales, becoming Mayer's ninth top 10 album on the chart. It debuted at number one on the US ''Billboard'' Top Rock Albums, becoming the third number one album by Mayer in 2017 on this chart following the two EPs ''Wave One'' and ''Wave Two.''

Track listing

Personnel

Musicians

Adapted from album's liner notes. *

– vocals, guitars, piano * Steve Jordan – drums , percussion *

Pino Palladino Giuseppe Henry "Pino" Palladino (born 17 October 1957) is a Welsh musician, songwriter, and record producer. A prolific session bassist, he has played bass for acts such as The Who, the John Mayer Trio, Nine Inch Nails, Gary Numan, Jeff Beck ...

– bass guitar *

Sheryl Crow Sheryl Suzanne Crow (born February 11, 1962) is an American musician, singer, songwriter and actress. Her music incorporates elements of rock, pop, country, folk, and blues. She has released eleven studio albums, five compilations and three li ...

– vocals *

Mike Elizondo Mike Elizondo (born October 22, 1972) is an American producer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. A protege of Dr. Dre, Elizondo has worked with 50 Cent, Eminem, Carrie Underwood, Fiona Apple, Mastodon, Ry Cooder, Skylar Grey, Twenty ...

– bass *

James Fauntleroy James Edward Fauntleroy II (born May 16, 1984) is an American singer, songwriter, and record producer from Inglewood, California. He is best known for writing credits on tracks by high-profile artists such as Travis Scott, Frank Ocean, Kendrick ...

– additional keyboards *

Chuck Findley Charles B. Findley (born December 13, 1947 in Johnstown, Pennsylvania) is an American trumpet player known for his diverse work as a session musician. He also plays other brass instruments such as flugelhorn and trombone. His technical abilities ...

– trumpet *

Larry Goldings Lawrence Sam “Larry” Goldings (born August 28, 1968) is an American jazz keyboardist and composer. His music has explored elements of funk, blues, and fusion. Goldings has a comedic alter ego known as Hans Groiner. Life and career Gold ...

– keyboards , pump organ *Gary Grant – trumpet *

Jerry Hey Jerry Hey (born 1950) is an American trumpeter, flugelhornist, horn arranger, string arranger, orchestrator and session musician who has played on hundreds of commercial recordings, including Michael Jackson's '' Thriller'', ''Rock with You'', ...

– horn arrangements and conducting * Daniel Higgins – saxophone *

Al Jardine Alan Charles Jardine (born September 3, 1942) is an American musician, singer, and songwriter who co-founded the Beach Boys. He is best known as the band's rhythm guitarist and for occasionally singing lead vocals on singles such as "Help Me, Rho ...

– vocals *Matt Jardine – vocals *

Greg Leisz Gregory Brian Leisz ( ; born September 18, 1949) is an American musician. He is a songwriter, recording artist, and producer. He plays guitar, dobro, mandolin, lap steel and pedal steel guitar. Biography Leisz grew up in the garage band cu ...

– lap steel , dobro , pedal steel *

Andy Martin Anthony Robert Martin-Trigona, usually known as Andy Martin (born 1945), is an American perennial candidate who has never been elected to office, running as both a Democrat and a Republican. He has filed over 250 political lawsuits nationwide. ...

– trombone *Tiffany Palmer – vocals *

Davide Rossi Davide Rossi (born 7 August 1970) is an Italian violinist, string arranger, composer, conductor and a record producer, perhaps best known for having been the violinist, guitar and keytar-player for the British electronic music duo Goldfrapp fr ...

– strings , string arrangements and conducting *

Aaron Sterling Aaron Sterling (born July 9, 1980) is an American drummer, producer, engineer, and session musician who lives in Los Angeles. The son of professional musicians, Sterling grew up in Texas and Nashville, Tennessee, before moving to L.A. in 2000. K ...

– drums , percussion

Production

*Steve Jordan – executive producer *

Chad Franscoviak Chad Franscoviak is a sound engineer and producer based out of Los Angeles, California. He is most well known for his work on John Mayer albums. The two were also roommates. In 2003, Franscoviak helped friend David LaBruyere by engineering his ...

– producer, engineering *John Mayer – producer *Chris Galland – mixing *

Manny Marroquin Manny Marroquin (born September 21, 1971) is an American mixing engineer.Daley, Dan (May 2005).Manny Marroquin. ''Sound on Sound''. Retrieved February 10, 2007 He has received ten Grammy awards for his professional audio work. Life and career M ...

– mixing *

Greg Calbi Gregory Calbi (born April 3, 1949) is an American mastering engineer at Sterling Sound, New Jersey. Biography Greg Calbi was born on April 3, 1949, in Yonkers, New York, and raised in Bayside, Queens, New York. He graduated in 1966 from Bisho ...

– mastering

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

External links

The Search for Everything
' at

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Search for Everything 2017 albums John Mayer albums Columbia Records albums Sony Music albums Albums recorded at Capitol Studios Concept albums