John Mayer

John Mayer

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Essential Albums

  • Continuum
    Continuum
    Continuum

    After throwing fans of his campfire serenades off guard with the jam-heavy live album Try!, Continuum confirms John Mayer’s transformation into a 21st-century soul man with serious blues-rock chops. And for Mayer, that shift means more than just casting his songs in a gospel glow, but also speaking to political unrest atop the laidback shuffle of “Waiting on the World to Change.” Ultimately, the growth Mayer exhibits here can be gauged not just by his shred-tastic cover of Hendrix’s “Bold as Love,” but by the fact he answers it with “Dreaming with a Broken Heart,” a lighter-waving anthem to call his own.

  • Heavier Things
    Heavier Things
    Heavier Things

    While John Mayer peels off the occasional solo on tracks like "Only Heart" and "Come Back to Bed," this record is distinguished by its warm and fuzzy moments. The GRAMMY®-winning "Daughters" advocates considerate parenting over a lilting acoustic waltz, while the summery swing of "Clarity" is brisk coffeeshop pop.

  • Room for Squares
    Room for Squares
    Room for Squares

    John Mayer’s debut album masterfully navigates the tricky tightrope between pop accessibility and artistic credibility. Raised on guitar greats such as Stevie Ray Vaughan and Albert King—Mayer posthumously inducted the latter into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2013—Room for Squares announced the arrival of an equally adept player, as comfortable in the realms of acoustic folk-pop (“Why Georgia”) as he was noodling on a snaking funk riff on “Neon” and embarking on a Santana-esque middle-eight in “83.” That Mayer used those skills to mold warm, FM-friendly pop songs made him something of an anomaly in the early 2000s, a time when the pop charts were dominated by the second wave of nu metal (Staind, System Of A Down, Disturbed) and pop/R&B megastars like Janet Jackson, Destiny’s Child, and Alicia Keys. (The closest charting artist to Mayer was Dave Matthews—coincidentally, Room for Squares producer John Alagía also helmed multiple Dave Matthews Band albums.) Having dropped out of Berklee College of Music to move to Atlanta, it was there that Mayer crafted many of the songs on his major label debut, signing with Columbia after independently releasing 1999’s Inside Wants Out. Cribbing its name from Hank Mobley’s 1963 album No Room for Squares, that Mayer tweaked the title slightly is a fitting representation of the record—one that foregoes any airs of cool for lyrically earnest guitar-pop that, on occasion, borders on the nostalgic and naïve. Energetic opener “No Such Thing” finds Mayer longing to return to the halls of his high school and scream the knowledge he’s gained about the real world beyond the cliques and pressures of the classroom; “My Stupid Mouth” recalls the promise he’d make to himself at the beginning of each school year to be quiet and tactful, only to break that promise by the end of the first lesson, a habit that’s now cost him a relationship (“I’m never speaking up again,” he laments); “Why Georgia” is inspired by his lean days before finding success, when he’d have to fight the urge to give up and return home. Matters of the heart also play a prominent role, whether it be the fantasy of “Love Song for No One,” written about a partner he hadn’t yet met, or the lust-filled romance of “Your Body Is a Wonderland,” Mayer’s whispered, breathy baritone setting pulses racing as he teases, “You want love? We’ll make it/Swim in a deep sea of blankets.” Mayer would go on to flex his guitar chops more extravagantly on outings such as the John Mayer Trio’s 2005 live album Try!, not to mention his stint with the Grateful Dead offshoot Dead & Company. Here, though, it’s Mayer’s songwriting that remains the focus, the foundation on which he launched—and has maintained—his career.

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About John Mayer

Singer/songwriter, bluesman, pop star, guitar hero, R&B crooner—John Mayer is a bundle of personalities that are nearly impossible to reconcile. His initial run of albums, beginning with his 2003 debut, Room for Squares, and capping with Battle Studies in 2009, established him as a chart-topping heartthrob. Deft fretwork is there, certainly, yet it’s the husky whisper, sexual tension, and effortless hooks that make him one of the preeminent artists of the 2000s. Onstage, it’s a different story, however. Mayer’s tightly crafted hits loosen up and stretch out, revealing his roots in classic rock, soul, and blues. It’s this John Mayer who takes center stage in the 2010s. Pop still makes appearances, but on Born and Raised and Paradise Valley, he goes all in, serving up pedal-steel-inflected ballads haunted by hippie California. In this context, Mayer teaming up with surviving members of the Grateful Dead to form Dead & Company in 2015 makes total sense. Playing the role of Jerry Garcia opposite Bob Weir, he transforms into a guitar guru, weaving psychedelic tapestries night after night for Deadheads across the United States. But just as fans get used to an older and wiser Mayer seemingly easing into the jam-band lifestyle, he doubles back and drops the 2018 single “New Light,” a slice of purring, disco-inspired pop that could be credited to a neo-soul star barely out of their teens.

HOMETOWN
Bridgeport, CT, United States
BORN
October 16, 1977
GENRE
Rock

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