My Amazon Reviews: John Mayer "Continuum"

Turning Into a Grown Up,
4 out of 5 Stars

The big handed John Meyer has grown up before our very ears. While he was a younger guitar godlet, his musical range (especially lyrically) was still that of a kid. He wanted to break away from that mold with his power trio album, Try! Live in Concert, it isn't until now that Mayer sounds like his own man. "Waiting For the World To Change" is the calling card, when he sings

"One day our generation is gonna rule the population,
so we keep on waiting,
waiting on the world to change."

You can see the youthful kid become a more idealistic adult. And those "Clapton Jr" comments that have swirled around him? They are now 100% apt. Mayer is flowing his blues as naturally as they come. When he tackles Hendrix's "Bold As Love," you have to admire his guts. "Belief" and "Vultures" are mature songs that show a huge leap from Heavier Things, where his sound and lyrics are fully formed and beautiful. His band, now under the core of bassist Pino Palladino and drummer Steve Jordan, mixes rock and blues, pop and jazz in a smooth and clear and cool finished CD.

The dictionary defines continuum as "A continuous extent, succession, or whole, no part of which can be distinguished from neighboring parts except by arbitrary division" and the seamlessness of the 2008 model of John Mayer meets that definition. "Continuum" is the work of an artist approaching the peak of his powers, and rates as an album in the league of his older peers.