Continuum (CD)

Since he first released Room For Squares five years back, John Mayer has sold eight million discs. That's a lot of product in a short time. This guy has got it goin' on. Continuum, a studio album that combines the energy of Try (co-produced by Steve Jordan) and the wit and soul of "classic" Mayer from Heavier Things. This is a very good record.

If you're looking for the continuity that references the John-Pino-Steve power trio, check out the Hendrix cover. "Bold As Love" shows off John Mayer's excellent and kind of hidden guitar skills. The track also gives you a shot at really digging the song. The rough deal with Hendrix is that his personality and magnetism overwhelmed his writing. That's not because his writing was weak, but because his star burned so brightly. John Mayer lets "Bold As Love" speak in it's own voice. It's a great cover of a great tune.

Singer/songwriter that he is, Mayer covers mostly his own stuff on record. There are a couple of tracks from the Try record reproduced in the studio with Jordan's help. "Gravity" is the same brutally slow twelve-eight blues drag it was live, but the vocals are clearer and cleaner, the separation is sharper, and the groove narrower and more pointed. Obviously you'll compare the two tracks. They both work. On Continuum there's more of a Van Morrison feeling to the song. "Vultures" is here too. The other nine tracks are new John Mayer. This guy can write a song.

Rock, pop, soul, a touch of funk, some traditional blues, all get tossed into the salad with John Mayer. The first single (and first cut on the CD) is "Waiting On The World To Change." Like most of his stuff; you gotta listen carefully and more than once to get it. Like JT -- John Mayer is lots deeper than he seems on first listen. "When they own the information/ They can bend it all they want" is a pretty intense message for a first single in such a conservative time. You gotta love it! The track has a deep and complex groove, with Mayer's signature chord splashes thrown in. You can hear the influence of Don Henley when he sang, "and they loved it when he told them they were better than the rest." It's hard to believe that we still need this subtle caution twenty years on.

"Stop This Train" is the good old John Mayer. Folkie, guitar-based pop, with that Michael Franks phrasing is so easy and effortless for him. You feel like he just sat down and made it up in the studio before lunch. John Mayer has a spontaneity that saves all his stuff from pretense. He has the Jackson Browne gift for introspection and friendliness. This is another, better, hipper, John Mayer record with all of the easy familiarity that is his charm.

By Dave Morgan