Why 'Continuum' Really Is John Mayer's Best Album
John Clayton Mayer is many things: a style icon, a late-night-Instagram talk show host, a reformed provocateur, a thinker. But before all of that, Mayer is a musician, and a damn good one at that. Mayer's ability to articulate the human feeling is only trumped by his status as one of the greatest guitar players of his generation. Not convinced on that last point? Listen to him go to work toward the end "Gravity" from his live album Where the Light Is: Live in LA, wipe the tears away, and tell me I'm not right.
Since his 2001 debut with Room for Squares, Mayer has produced seven studio albums. If you grew up listening to Mayer, you've listened to him growing up through his music as well. That lovesick boy on Squares has become a man with an innate ability to articulate questions about the world we live in-which we hear in his latest single, "I Guess I Just Feel Like." From my extremely subjective point of view, Mayer has really only ever made one bad song. It's called "Say," and you can hear it faintly playing at your local chain restaurant, department store, or in an elevator.
Here's how his seven studio albums stack up against each other.
7. Paradise Valley (2013)
After a long hiatus from the spotlight, Mayer's Born and Raised in 2012 surprised and delighted fans with a new sound. He carried that over to the following year with Paradise Valley which leaned into its predecessor's country/folk vibe. From a mainstream point of view, there's only one hit to be found on this record: a duet with then girlfriend Katy Perry called "Who You Love," which flexes both of their vocals (mainly Perry's) and some damn good harmonies. The line "My boy, he ain't the one that I saw comin'. And some have said his heart's too hard to hold," is a fitting, self-aware reference from Perry about Mayer's tumultuous dating history. That history also comes into play with "Paper Doll," a song rumored to have been written about Taylor Swift. Drama aside, the best part of the song is its music video-a parody of a viral internet tutorial on "Prancercizing." Not even a Frank Ocean feature on "Wildfire (Reprise)" could bump this one up on the list, but it's due more to the strength of the rest of his catalogue than to the failures of the album.
6. The Search for Everything (2017)
Mayer's latest, released in 2017, is another that falls victim to the the brilliance of his previous work. The Search for Everything is full of bops, from the soulful, yet poppy, "Still Feel Like Your Man," to the deeply introspective "In the Blood." The album runs the gamut of feelings we've seen throughout Mayer's career. There's blues guitar, there are folksy acoustics, and of course, there are quests for love, but the album doesn't quite hit you in the feels the way others do. It also features a song called "Emoji of a Wave," which probably holds the largest disparity between the quality of a song and its title that I've ever seen. (You'll want to belt it out, regardless.)
5. Heavier Things (2003)
Mayer's sophomore album is just as Young Man Existential as his debut with Room For Squares, but with a bit more solace. Mayer had hit the big time at this point, and, in my humble opinion, avoided the sophomore slump. This is the album that gave us "Daughters," perhaps his most popular song of all time. Where Room for Squares is curious, Heavier Things is anxious. Its final song, "Wheel," is not well-known, but paved the way for future life-appraising songs like "Emoji of a Wave" and "I Guess I Just Feel Like."
4. Born and Raised (2012)
In 2011, Mayer underwent surgery for Granuloma of the vocal chords, a condition that's plagued the likes of Adele and Keith Urban as well. Born and Raised was a comeback story on many fronts. Not only does Mayer literally get his voice back post-surgery, the album also followed a long hiatus, where Mayer retreated from public life to Montana. The rebirth is evident not only in his vocals, but in the lyrics as well. On "Speak for Me," Mayer references the public fallout from a Rolling Stone cover story everyone has already talked about to death with the line "Now the cover of a Rolling Stone, ain't the cover of a Rolling Stone. And the music on my radio, ain't supposed to make me feel alone." The album flexes the influence Neil Young had on Mayer with country, folksy vibes, on songs like "Whiskey, Whiskey, Whiskey," but also brings back the blues guitar on classic Mayer love tracks like "Love Is a Verb," and "Something Like Olivia." The underdog MVP of the album is "Walt Grace's Submarine Test, January 1967," where Mayer tells the story of a man fed up with life, driving him to build his own submarine and take off for Tokyo. The song ends ambiguously, not knowing whether Walt Grace makes it across the Pacific or dies on his way. It's a sort of storytelling we'd not yet seen from Mayer, and it lands graciously.
3. Battle Studies (2009)
In 2009 I was a junior in college and had just gone through a breakup, so of course Mayer's pure breakup ballad-filled Battle Studies ranks high on my list. Just look at some of these titles: "All We Ever Do Is Say Goodbye," "Perfectly Lonely," "Edge of Desire," and of course, the very on the nose "Heartbreak Warfare." Battle Studies also features a duet recorded during rumored romance with Taylor Swift called "Half of My Heart," which could have easily been recorded during their actual breakup talk. Battle Studies is dark and brooding-a catalogue of sad songs to listen to while walking home from class in the rain. It's also the first time Mayer references running away from it all and doing his own thing. While the album isn't full of hits, it's quintessential Mayer. Fans had waited three years for the album after Continuum, and what they got was a more grown-up, seemingly broken Mayer any Sad Boi worth his salt could relate to.
2. Room For Squares (2001)
Mayer's debut album, originally only released online before Columbia signed him, could easily be his best, if we were ranking on songwriting alone. On Room For Squares, a young, curious Mayer explores the ups and downs of love and life from his own experiences. It gave us the songs anyone who causally knows of Mayer will reference upon his mention with "No Such Thing," ("I wanna run through the halls of my high school") and "Your Body Is a Wonderland," ("Your body is a wonderland"), but also contains some of his deepest songwriting of all time. On "83" Mayer pines to return to life at age six, and on "My Stupid Mouth," he, ironically enough, predicts his own future. Though not included on the original online release, the song "3X5" might be the album's best. It's a song you'll want to send to your ex to tell them you want to get back together. (Don't, though. Or any song for that matter.)
1.Continuum (2006)
John Mayer's third album is often regarded as his best, and that's because it is Mayer at his most comfortable, and his most uninhibited in terms of songwriting and performance. If Squares gave us a taste of Mayer's ability as a songwriter then Continuum established Mayer as a master of his craft and not just a fluke hit artist. The album was nominated for three Grammys (including Album of the Year), and won two (Best Pop Vocal Album and Best Male Pop Vocal Performance for "Waiting on the World to Change." It's difficult to pick a top song from Continuum because of its consistency from start to finish. The beautifully unfortunate story within "Slow Dancing in a Burning Room," the existential bombshell of "Stop This Train," and tears-pouring-down-your-face inducing brilliance of "Dreaming With a Broken Heart" have all stood the test of time. But his all-time guitar work and frustratingly relatable songwriting on "Gravity" may go down as his greatest and most popular song of all time, let alone this album. By the time Continuum came around, John Mayer was already a star among the people, but this is the album that made an entire industry utter "whoa." It's too easy to put this atop his catalogue.
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