John Mayer Albums (8)
'Where the Light Is: John Mayer Live in Los Angeles'
Release Date 6/24/2008
Tracks 22
Label Columbia
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
Recorded at the Nokia Theater in Los Angeles, CA, Where the Light Is: John Mayer Live in Los Angeles finds singer/songwriter and guitarist John Mayer performing in three different band settings: acoustic trio, electric trio, and large ensemble. As such, the evening works as a nice representation of Mayer's work beginning with the 2003 album Heavier Things and continuing through his creative reinvention as a modern electric blues artist with 2005's Try! John Mayer Trio Live in Concert and finally his smash Grammy-winning 2006 effort, Continuum. Essentially, the concert is designed to showcase Mayer's ability to move from melodic soft rock and pop to folky solo numbers and rockin' blues. Generally, the conceit works and the concert does shine a light, so to speak, on Mayer's virtuosic musical chops. However, segmenting this concert into such specific aesthetic sounds loses some of the diverse flow a Mayer concert usually has. It should be noted that the concert is also available on DVD and Blu-ray, where you get see each band and appreciate the diversity among the ensembles. That said, for fans of Mayer the songwriter, you really can't lose, as the guy is hard-pressed to come up with a bad song, and tracks like the fan favorite "Daughters" and the bittersweet "Stop This Train" really benefit from the acoustic reading Mayer gives them here. Similarly, by putting "'Who Do You Think I Was," "Vultures," and his inspired take on Jimi Hendrix's "Bold as Love" in the middle electric trio section, Mayer builds the energy of the concert, perfectly setting up the pop/blues cornucopia of the final large ensemble set. Beginning with the hit "'Waiting on the World to Change," Mayer's last set (on disc two) is really the set most fans will gravitate toward, as it finds Mayer and his backing group of stellar sideman diving headlong into such soulful numbers as "Why Georgia" and "I Don't Trust Myself (With Loving You)," while also making room for such bluesy nuggets as his Stevie Ray Vaughan-inspired reworking of the Ray Charles hit "I Don't Need No Doctor." Admittedly sprawling and ambitious, Where the Light Is is nonetheless a dynamic showcase for Mayer, who never fails to shine. ~ Matt Collar, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Anybody who was initially confused by singer/songwriter John Mayer's foray into blues with 2005's Try! John Mayer Trio Live in Concert could only have been further confounded upon listening to the album and coming to the realization that it was actually good. And not just kinda good, especially for guy who had been largely labeled as a Dave Matthews clone, but really, truthfully, organically good as a blues album in its own right. However, for longtime fans who had been keeping tabs on Mayer, the turn might not have been so unexpected. Soon after the release of his 2003 sophomore album, the laid-back, assuredly melodic Heavier Things, Mayer began appearing on albums by such iconic blues and jazz artists as Buddy Guy, B.B. King, and Herbie Hancock. And not just singing, but playing guitar next to musicians legendary on the instrument. In short, he was seeking out these artists in an attempt to delve into the roots of the blues, a music he obviously has a deep affection for. Rather than his blues trio being a one-off side project completely disconnected to his past work, it is clear now that it was the next step in his musical development. And truthfully, while Try! certainly showcases Mayer's deft improvisational blues chops, it's more of a blues/soul album in the tradition of such electric blues legends as Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan, and features songs by Mayer that perfectly marry his melodic songcraft and his blues-slinger inclinations. In fact, what seemed at the time a nod to his largely female fan base (the inclusion of "Daughters" and "Something's Missing" off Heavier Things) was actually a hint that he was bridging his sound for his listeners, showing them where he was going. That said, nothing he did up until the excellent, expansive Try! could have prepared you for the monumental creative leap forward that is Mayer's 2006 studio effort, Continuum. Working with his blues trio/rhythm section of bassist Pino Palladino and drummer Steve Jordan, along with guest spots by trumpeter Roy Hargrove and guitarist Ben Harper, Mayer brings all of his recent musical explorations and increasing talents as a singer/songwriter to bear on Continuum. Produced solely by Mayer and Jordan, the album is a devastatingly accomplished, fully realized effort that in every way exceeds expectations and positions Mayer as one of the most relevant artists of his generation. Adding weight to the notion that Mayer's blues trio is more than just a creative indulgence, he has carried over two tracks from the live album in "Vultures" and the deeply metaphorical soul ballad "Gravity." These are gut-wrenchingly poignant songs that give voice to a generation of kids raised on TRL teen stars and CNN soundbites who've found themselves all grown up and fighting a war of "beliefs." Grappling with a handful of topics -- social and political, romantic and sexual, pointedly personal and yet always universal in scope -- Mayer's Continuum here earns a legitimate comparison to Marvin Gaye's What's Going On. Nobody -- not a single one of Mayer's contemporaries -- has come up with anything resembling a worthwhile antiwar anthem that is as good and speaks for their generation as much as his "Waiting on the World to Change" -- and he goes and hangs the whole album on it as the first single. It's a bold statement of purpose that is carried throughout the album, not just in sentiment, but also tone. Continuum is a gorgeously produced, brilliantly stripped-to-basics album that incorporates blues, soft funk, R&B, folk, and pop in a sound that is totally owned by Mayer. It's no stretch when trying to describe the sound of Continuum to color it in the light of work by such legends as Sting, Eric Clapton, Sade, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and Steve Winwood. In fact, the sustained adult contemporary tone of the album could easily have become turgid, boring, or dated but never does, and brings to mind such classic late-'80s albums as Sting's Nothing Like the Sun, Clapton's Journeyman, and Vaughan's In Step. At every turn, Continuum finds Mayer to be a mature, thoughtful, and gifted musician who fully grasps his place not just in the record industry, but in life. ~ Matt Collar, All Music Guide
'Try! John Mayer Trio Live in Concert'
Release Date 11/22/2005
Tracks 11
Label Sony
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
What got into John Mayer? Sometime after the release of his 2003 sophomore album, Heavier Things, a perfectly pleasant affair that expanded on the dreamy, mellow adult pop of his breakthrough hit, "Your Body Is a Wonderland," he decided that he just didn't want to follow that direction anymore. He started penning a monthly column for Esquire magazine, within which he hinted that his musical tastes were far broader than his recordings suggested, and then he started cameoing all over the place, appearing on albums by Buddy Guy, Herbie Hancock, B.B. King, Eric Clapton, and John Scofield -- heavy hitters one and all, yet none of them seemed to have much to do with Mayer's music, at least on the surface. These veterans recognized something within Mayer's playing, but more importantly, he realized that he needed to push himself further and decided to expand his horizons by seizing the opportunity to play with these masters and then incorporating what he learned into his own music. He toured as a power trio with studio pros Steve Jordan and Pino Palladino and recorded the live album Try! while on the road. There are no two ways about it: anybody who dismissed Mayer as a lite Dave Matthews wannabe based on his first two records will be forced to reassess him on the basis of this excellent record. While he still has some vocal tics that bring to mind Matthews and certainly shares an affection for lengthy live jams, Mayer has developed serious chops that transcend boilerplate jam band rock, where the groove and feel is more important than what's played. Here, Mayer is pushed by Jordan and Palladino -- and he pays back the favor by giving them equal billing on the album's front cover, which is unusual for any pop/rock star of his popularity (the cover also marks the second Blue Note allusion in Mayer's oeuvre, which is surely not a coincidence) -- and he rises to the challenge with muscular playing that's his best playing on record. Not just that, but there's a palpable grit to Try! -- and a sultry smoothness to the mellow numbers -- unheard on his previous studio albums. That alone would make Try! not just noteworthy, but a step forward for Mayer. But what makes it more remarkable is that Mayer takes an even greater risk by relying on new material for this album. There are two older songs -- "Something's Missing" and the hit "Daughters," both from Heavier Things -- but the rest consists of covers of Jimi Hendrix and Ray Charles ("Wait Until Tomorrow" and "I Got a Woman," respectively) and new songs that showcase Mayer's earthier, blues-rock direction. Although he sometimes dips into blues-rock clichés -- particularly on the slow-crawling "Out of My Mind" -- it's only on occasion (and when he does tread that familiar ground, he does so with conviction), and the songs overall are his strongest, most ambitious set of tunes yet. And that's what's most impressive about Try! -- Mayer has expanded what he can do as a musician and a writer and in the process has definitively separated himself from the pack of sensitive, jammy modern singer/songwriters. Based on this, he has more heart, soul, ambition, and chops than the rest of them combined. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Don't take the title of John Mayer's Heavier Things literally. Mayer offers nothing heavy on the follow-up to his breakthrough hit, Room for Squares -- nothing heavy in the music and nothing heavy in the lyrics. No, Mayer is smooth, slick, and streamlined on his second or third album (it all depends if you count his 1999 debut, Inside Wants Out, half of which was re-recorded for Room for Squares, which itself was released in two different incarnations), playing things straight and following the blueprint his big radio hit, "Your Body Is a Wonderland," provided. The title Heavier Things does reflect his new directness, lacking the lithe playfulness that resulted in a Hank Mobley joke, of all things, for an album title last time out. That extends to the rest of the album -- the humor and interesting wordplay have been toned down, leaving very little ambiguity. Actually, there's little left unexplained on the record, with every song on the album spread across several grids explaining where they were written and how many beats per minute they are, breaking them down into keywords, charting what "suggested target points" on the body the song should hit (tellingly, not one track is targeted at the crotch), and even grouping the songs together by key. The latter is a bit of a mistake, since it shows that for all those jazzy major and minor seventh chords gliding by in his songs, he's keeping his songwriting pretty simple, sticking to D, E, F, G, and A, with a G minor thrown in for good measure. This, of course, is not really a problem for listeners, since most listeners don't care how a song is written as long as it sounds good, but this does confirm that he's kept things simple, concentrating on how the record sounds and feels. And, as a piece of mood music, this is really quite effective, delivering on how "Your Body Is a Wonderland" sounds, with some really nice lush, laid-back textures and songs that are melodic without being truly catchy. It's music that floats through the speakers nicely and never leaves much of a lasting impression; it's how a jazzier, laid-back, less adventurous, and MOR-oriented Dave Matthews would sound. Mayer is now more of a record-maker than songwriter, which will undoubtedly dishearten those who liked the song-oriented Inside Wants Out, but those who just enjoyed the sound and feel of Room for Squares should feel right at home. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Room for Squares was released in summer 2001, and John Mayer toured in support of it for more than a year after. The live Any Given Thursday, then, filled the gap until Mayer's proper follow-up could be recorded; it also capitalized on his tumbleweed of stardom, which was still rolling through 2003 due to a Grammy win and strong word of mouth between campuses about his live show. Any Given Thursday was recorded at Oak Mountain Amphitheater in Birmingham, AL, on September 12, 2002. In addition to Mayer's guitar and vocals, it features bassist David LaBruyere, drummer Stephen Chopek, and guitarist/keyboardist Michael Chaves. No matter how great it was when it happened, a live document always has the potential for disaster when released for public consumption. Thursday succeeds, but it does so because Mayer's music is an unthreatening mixture of college rock and wide-eyed adolescent lyricism. Like Dave Matthews, Mayer makes music that appeals to everyone, goes great with beer, and can be played with relative ease by any college-town cover band. He's handsome, and his lyrics say everything that real boyfriends never will. Live, each vocal trill and guitar flourish is greeted with Beatlesque screaming from his largely female following. Singalong moments during "Love Song for No One," "Why Georgia," and the sticky bubblegum love pop of "Your Body Is a Wonderland" prove this; during each, the "B-ham choir" (as Mayer characterizes the crowd) sounds like a thousand pretty birds harmonizing on his words. ~ Johnny Loftus, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
After John Mayer hooked up with producer John Alagia, who had previously worked with Dave Matthews, for his second album, Room for Squares, a lot of people heard him as a second Matthews. But a listen to Mayer's first album, Inside Wants Out, half of which turned up in re-recorded form on Room for Squares, is liable to remind the listener more of an earlier antecedent, 1970s folk-jazz performer Michael Franks of "Popsicle Toes" fame. Like Franks, Mayer here has a wheezy, phlegmatic tenor and, though he plays an acoustic guitar that is the focus of the arrangements even when a few other instruments are brought in, he does not restrict himself to folk chords, instead throwing in jazzy elements. His material is better when he cuts through the affectations, however. The best songs, neither of which were repeated on Room for Squares, are "Love Soon" and "Comfortable." In the latter, he sings to a former girlfriend about his current one, illuminating how different one love interest can be from another. "Life of the party, and she swears that she's arty," he notes of the new girl, "but you could distinguish Miles from Coltrane," clearly more of an attribute for him. Such an attention to detail in his lyrics (as well as an ear for a well-turned phrase such as his observation that the new girl "poses for pictures that aren't being taken") mark Mayer as an original songwriter, if sometimes a precious one. For the 2002 reissue on Columbia Records, Vlado Miller re-sequenced the brief album, putting the four songs re-used on Room for Squares up front, among them the hit "No Such Thing." But new fans should listen to the rest of the disc as well. They may hear Mayer in a more direct and honest way. ~ William Ruhlmann , All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
After making minor waves with his 1999 debut, Inside Wants Out, John Mayer hired veteran producer John Alagía (a longtime associate of the Dave Matthews Band) to lace his first major-label effort with commercial appeal. Released in September 2001, Room for Squares proved to be a savvy, well-timed album, quietly heralding the end of teen pop's glory days with nuanced wordplay, a relaxed gait, and intricate (although nevertheless accessible) songwriting. Songs like "No Such Thing" and "Neon" mixed jazz chords with digestible choruses, fashioning a sort of brainy, college-educated pop hybrid that found a home amongst discerning listeners and mainstream fans alike. Of course, it didn't hurt that Mayer also loaded the album with more straightforward numbers -- particularly "Your Body Is a Wonderland," a bubbling piece of bedroom pop that helped swell his female audience. Mayer's heralded guitar solos and bluesy, Stevie Ray Vaughan-styled flourishes were sorely absent from the mix, though, as he initially limited the bulk of his fretwork to the acoustic guitar. It would take a jam-friendly concert album -- 2003's Any Given Thursday -- to introduce the breadth of Mayer's axeman skills to the public, but Room for Squares still provides a nice introduction to the songwriter's catalog, highlighting his blend of collegiate pop/rock and sensitive acoustics while only hinting at the eclectic, genre-hopping chameleon he would later become. ~ Andrew Leahey, All Music Guide
