John Mayer Heavier Things (Columbia/Sony) Rating: NNN
Rating: NNN
John Mayer’s critical accolades confuse me. The guy’s a pleasant enough pop singer, but I don’t hear the same musical and literate lyrical genius the rest of the rock media establishment does. His follow-up to 2001’s Room For Squares throws some tasteful horn arrangements into the white-boy folk/soul mix to good effect, although the pared-down, simple acoustic strum of Daughters is a highlight. And there’s no song as nauseating as Your Body Is A Wonderland. I’d go so far as to say Mayer’s heavier musings on Heavier Things address the universal dilemma of postmodern alienation in an increasingly commodified society, but maybe that’d be giving him too much credit.
