John Mayer back with new single Paper Doll

John Mayer made a lot of noise about moving beyond his tabloid-victim past with last year’s revealing, stripped-down Born and Raised.

But if the singer-songwriter learned any lessons about the dangers of kissing and telling, you wouldn’t know it from his new single, in which he appears to refer to his widely publicised relationship with Taylor Swift – a story she seemed to tell her side of with her song Dear John.

“You’re like 22 girls in one,” he sings in Paper Doll, which hit iTunes early on Tuesday. “And none of them know what they’re running from.”

Swift’s current single is, of course, titled 22.

Paper Doll is the first single from Paradise Valley, a new album Mayer is currently finishing with producer Don Was, according to a press release.

Next month, the singer is to launch a lengthy US tour, his first since undergoing surgery to remove a growth on his vocal cords; it’s scheduled to stop at Irvine’s Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre on July 27 and the Hollywood Bowl on October 5.