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JOHN MAYER - HEAVIER THINGS - SONY MUSIC
Record Rating: ****
2003 was a banner year for 26 year-old singer/songwriter John Mayer. For the Connecticut native racked up a Grammy award and critical acclaim and his creative song writing and warm stage presence established him as a formidable musical force to watch out for.
Surpassing the teen ideas of Room For Squares and diving into the heavier side of life, Mayer’s latest release seems to be on a good start. Turning the knobs on Heavier Things is producer Jack Joseph Puig, who mixed Mayer's previous effort, Room for Squares, so you sit back and wait for the magic to happen once more. After all, his last album was a multi-platinum breakthrough success whose sensual anthem Your Body is a Wonderland scored him an unlikely Grammy for Best Pop Vocal. But if you’re expecting more songs like Your Body is a Wonderland and Back to You – you will be disappointed. If anything this album is by far more autobiographical than Room For Squares and much more mature, both lyrically and musically. The lead single Bigger Than My Body is already a huge radio hit, but it lacks the freshness of his earlier work - and will leave you wanting for more. The ten tracks evoke memories of the recent Sting, Dave Matthews and Bob Dylan releases- and that’s actually a bad thing. Mayer had a good thing going with his signature acoustic sound – and on this release you may find yourself cursing him for being sucked into the over-hyped, over-played bubble gum world of pop music.
Still this album is better that the rest of the junk out there that passes off as “popular music”.Tracks like Something’s Missing and New Deep does make you stop and think for a while, and Mayer's crafty guitar skills ultimately make this a decent effort. Although I was disappointed at first, John Mayer proves that music tends to sound better with a second listen. Once I gave the CD a chance and listened to the songs a couple of times, I got used to it. Recommended.
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