John Mayer has just released a new single, and the track features guest vocals from Maren Morris. “Last Train Home” is the first single from Mayer’s upcoming album, Sob Rock.
The singer-songwriter and guitarist dropped the new track on Friday (June 4), featuring the Grammy-winning country and pop singer on background vocals. The song draws on ’80s pop elements in an arrangement that invites comparison to the Toto classic “Africa,” juxtaposing synthesizer chords, drums and percussion with his signature guitar stylings.
“I’m not a fallen angel, I just fell behind / I’m out of luck and I’m out of time / If you don’t wanna love me, let me go / I’m runnin’ for the last train / I’m runnin’ for the last train home,” Mayer sings on the track, which is accompanied by a video he shot at Union Station in Los Angeles, according to People. The credits indicate that Cameron Duddy from Midland directed the clip:
Mayer has been teasing the new music on TikTok since March. Sob Rock — Mayer’s eighth album and his first in four years — is set for release on July 16, and Mayer tells the Wall Street Journal that he deliberately slanted the new tracks to sound reminiscent of some of his earliest ’80s influences as a way of offering comfort after what has been a difficult year for everyone.
“There’s a security-blanket aspect about that sound that reminds me of a safer time,” the 43-year-old musician states.
Mayer and Morris have previously shared their mutual musical admiration, and they collaborated at the 2021 Grammy Awards in March when he joined her onstage to lend his guitar talents to a live rendition of her massive hit, “The Bones.”
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