I have an inherent bias against John Mayer's new CD. I can't help it.

I think this has something to do with my relatively newfound love for the acoustic guitar. I can't help it - ever since I started learning to play the instrument, it became frighteningly easy for every six-string-slinging troubador this side of Dave Matthews to come along, snag my ear with some quick strumming and some fancy chord progressions, and close the deal with the usual lyrical tricks - melancholy love songs, self-deprecating love songs, and most importantly, soul-searching and vaguely spiritual love songs. Hey, if you're witty enough, you can hold my attention for years with the same old coffeehouse shtick. Which is not to say that John Mayer was limited to this by any means - his debut album Room for Squares took a few detours into jazz and rock territory, and it also provided some amusing ruminations on growing up and the basic human right to refuse to do so. A few of the songs might have made him a big star, but that honestly didn't register in my mind as I listened to Squares again and again. To me, he was just the gruff-voiced, thoughtful, and sometimes mischievous kid next door who happened to have recorded a CD.

Somewhere along the line, I think the kid finally decided to leave home and move to the big city. Trading in the acoustic trickery (for the most part) for the bigger sound of an electric guitar, John's follow-up album Heavier Things finds the same wide-eyed kid navigating the busy streets of his new home, occasionally convincing us that he really does fit in, but sometimes making us wonder what he gave up in order to go be with his "city love". I don't know if I'd quite call it a "rock record", since the jazzier elements and the overall beat and groove of the songs seem to have been played up quite a bit, making the guitar a compliment to the words and music, but not the star of the show that it was throughout most of Squares. At times, it's as if John wanted to take the focus off of his instrument, give his backing band a chance to shine, and remind us that at the core, he is a singer/songwriter. Fair enough - this certainly isn't the easy way out when more of the same would've kept the young girls screaming and the sensitive dudes like me overstating our appreciation for the guy so that we could get with said girls. I'm all for growth and change. But dang it, I miss that acoustic guitar!

Mayer seems to have trimmed the fat just a bit on Heavier Things - the album contains a lean 10 songs, which I consider to be the borderline beyond which an LP becomes an EP, as opposed to the 13 tracks that found Mayer's tricks just barely starting to wear thin by the end of Squares. I think I could live with this decision to make the album more dense and concentrated if not for a similar problem with less engaging material residing in the back half of the album. Paring down the content while beefing up the sound is enough to trigger mental comparisons to the shift the Dave Matthews Band underwent between Before These Crowded Streets and Everyday. Fortunately, the lyrics didn't suffer nearly as much in the process as Dave's did. I make this comparison more to point out the shift in musical dynamics than anything else. Ultimately, I think the same boyish charm is in effect here - the boy's just got a lot of new toys to play with now.

Clarity
Was there a second of time I looked around?
Did I sail through or drop my anchor down?
I have to say that John picked a winner to lead off Heavier Things with. If you want to pick a song that ensures a smile on the listener's face immediately after popping the CD into their player, this would be it. A cute little piano riff and a rather loud rhythm comprised of handclaps leads the way, and before long a few horns are blurting at you - this is some sort of funky jazz/pop/jam band hybrid that I couldn't properly describe without seriously calling my credibility as a music critic into question. (Oh wait, already did that.) It's just fun, and the lyrics manage to fit with the mood of the music without being so chipper as to be irritating. John starts off with a sentiment that I'm sure many of us can relate to: "I worry, I weigh three times my body." What's he gone and gotten himself so stressed out about? A girl. You know, the usual. The difference is, I think this time, she really likes him. They've got a thing going on, and he's too busy biting his nails over whether it's going to work out in the long run to enjoy it in the present time. Sometimes you just need a little reminder to live in the moment, you know? You're aware of the risk of being hurt in the future, but nobody escapes that - time to accept the risk and enjoy what you've got while you've got it! Vocally, John just owns this track. He sings mostly in his trademark, scruffy, lower register, but slips into some lovely falsetto "ooh-ooh-ooh"s when leading up to the chorus. And just to remind you that this is still a John Mayer song, he shifts into another unexpected but juicy chord progression during the bridge, a la "No Such Thing". Hearing that old trick applied in a new musical context is quite a thrill. Honestly, the only thing I could remotely complain about here is the fact that the otherwise high-energy song ends in a rather predictable fade. A lot of the songs on this disc have that problem.

Bigger than My Body
Yes, I'm grounded, got my wings clipped
I'm surrounded by all this pavement...
I'm not sure how to explain the hyperactive little melody that zips around in place of where you might expect a catchy guitar intro. My guess is that it's keyboard-generated, but the best way for me to approximate it is to say that it sounds like someone took microphone feedback and created a tune out of it. I actually find it a bit grating sometimes, but it doesn't hurt the overall catchiness of the song (big surprise, it's the album's first single). If the title tipped you off that this would be a song about John the real person vs. John the celebrity, then you're a pretty astute listener. John seems to be having an argument with himself here about whether he should risk pulling an Icarus (i.e. crashing and burning) in order to shoot for stardom and go out in a blaze of glory. He realized that "I'm bigger than my body gives me credit for", which actually sounds a bit arrogant, but ironically it also seems to indicate a struggle with self-esteem. Complicated guy, that John.

Something's Missing
I'm dizzy from the shopping mall
I searched for joy, but I bought it all...
The slower groove of this song (which was first released on the live album Any Given Thursday) allows the album to really focus on John's electric guitar for the first time, and he doesn't disappoint with the dramatic intro that he uses to set the mood for the song. It's a very cool combination of an authoritative single strum followed by a catchy string of notes being picked out in patterns of three, even though the song is in 4/4 - it gives the song a wicked sense of syncopation. This is the classic soul-searching song - John can't figure out the cause of the aching inside him, and none of the usual pleasures he enjoys can numb the pain. Later in the song, he rambles through a list of things that should make him happy - "Friends, check/Money, check/Well-slept, check/Opposite sex, check", and this even includes a bit of a musician's inside joke when he sings "Microphone, check" - but there's a bit of a double meaning there, too. He's a celebrity, people fill out arenas to hear him sing, and it's frightfully easy to get girls, but still he's a bit bored with it all. (Pull up a chair and read Ecclesiastes, man.) I have to admit, I was really baffled by the way this song fades out while John is still singing - I was really enjoying those lyrics about why everything he needs always comes with batteries and so forth, and then I don't even get to hear him finish the thought? It makes the song sound like some lame radio edit. Not necessary on an album where you've only got 10 songs and therefore plenty of room for lyrical rambles that run long.

New Deep
I'm so alive, I'm so enlightened
I can't barely survive a night in my mind...
This mid-tempo tune is the first of a few points on the album where I have to say that the music isn't all that interesting - a problem that Room for Squares had a lot less of. A shimmering guitar line leads it off, and you expect something upbeat to kick in, but the slow drum pattern kind of keeps it in a hold pattern. John's lyrics are actually pretty interesting, providing a closure of sorts to "Something's Missing" by declaring, "I'm gonna find out just how boring I am". See, he's tired of this introspection crap, and so he's going to sing a song analyzing his tendency to overanalyze everything. (I guess you'd call that meta-analyzing.) I can appreciate the clever approach here, though I think the end result is disappointing - basically he figures that God either isn't there or doesn't care about him since "He knows my address" but never shows up, and that "Numb is the new deep". I realize that there comes a point where overanalyzing sucks the life out of everything, and that sometimes we have to stop journaling and get out there and live life, but this seems to be a bit of an overboard response, don't you think?

Come Back to Bed
What will this fix?
You know you're not a quick forgive
And I wont sleep through this
I survive on the breath you are finished with...
Of course, this wouldn't be a John Mayer album if he didn't spend at least a few songs trying to woo a girl. This song takes a more subtle approach than the massive hit "Your Body Is a Wonderland" - or at least, it does musically, lounging comfortably in its 3/4 rhythm as John lights a few proverbial candles with his smooth, clean electric guitar playing. Perhaps you could consider this to be "Wonderland" slowed down to match the gentle grandeur of "City Love". If those two songs were about how wonderful love and sex could be to an eager young male, this one's definitely about how forlorn he can get when he and his honey get into an argument and she effectively ends the discussion by telling him he ain't gettin' any tonight. His attempt to explain what this depravation does to him sounds reasonably sensitive, but in the end it's more pathetic than anything else. I'm no expert on gender psychology or sexuality here, but logic tells me that for most guys, if you upset a girl, she isn't going to conveniently forget she's mad at you for long enough to hop in the sack with you and then try to talk it out afterwards. (Because she knows you'll fall asleep when you're done, you lame-o.) I have to admire John for trying - the cute little horns that color the chorus and the creative lyrics make for a compelling plea ("Ninety-eight and six degrees of separation" is a somewhat contrived but a musing line that helps to solidify the metaphor of his being cold without her body beside him), but in the end, you just have to figure he's in the doghouse and any attempts to further change her mind are going to come across as insensitive. Sorry, pal, better luck next time.

Home Life
I am not a nomad, I am not a rocket man
I was born a housecat by the slight of my mother's hand...
You have to admire John for baring his soul and telling it like it is. On this beat-driven track (I can't for the life of me figure out where the guitars went for most of it, though there is some cool string-plucking going on in the background), which John co-wrote with bass player David LaBruyere, he stands up and proudly declares his wish to be domesticated. Perhaps being bigger than his body ain't so appealing after all, and when all of the touring and celebrity hoopla is over with, he's hoping to settle down "on the side of a square" and begin the whole nesting process. (I suspect that this is where a lot of the poseur male fans trying to use John to get to the girls are going to say, "I'm out!") It's kind of funny to think that a guy like John Mayer would trade in his fame for a grid locked commute to a 9-5 job, but given the torment he described in "Something's Missing", maybe less is more. The song gets a bit uncomfortable when he tells us that "I will marry just once/And if it doesn't work out, give her half of my stuff", but hey, that kind of goes without saying in celebrity marriages anyhow... unless that's why he doesn't want to be a celebrity for the rest of his life? Makes one wonder. Good song overall... it just suffers from the occasional moment that is best left to John's diary.

Split Screen Sadness
And it stings when it's nobody's fault
Cause there's nothing to blame at the drop of your name...
Another beat-driven song shows up here - this one's a little slower, resting on a soft bed of organ and finger snaps, with a stronger rhythm kicking in later. Ultimately, it seems way too programmed for a John Mayer song - but that's not the problem so much as the length and overall drab color of the song. I can appreciate John wanting to play with different styles, and I wouldn't expect anything less than an extra helping of introspection when writing about a breakup. It's just that the combination of these elements leaves me a bit bored. It's like he's using way too many words to simply tell the girl over the phone (hence the "split screen" reference, you know, like in the movies when two people are talking on the phone and they're both on the screen at the same time) that he misses her. His declaration in the chorus that "Two wrongs make it all alright tonight" leaves a bit to be desired, and there's also a highly unfortunate moment in the song when he tells her "I still wish you'd fought me 'til your dying day", and the way he enunciates "fought", it sounds like a word guaranteed to make any first-grader giggle. This is probably the weakest song in John's repertoire so far.

Daughters
Oh, you see that skin?
It's the same she's been standing in
Since the day she saw him walking away
Now she's left cleaning up the mess he made...
This song would fit well into the category of "great message, not-so-great execution". I have to applaud John for writing a song that simply states how wonderful and precious women are in the grand scheme of things. However - and I know this is blasphemy given my opening statements in this review - the one song where he returns to the acoustic guitar does absolutely nothing to thrill me. It's almost as if this was a holdover from the style of his last album, since it's very much in the style of "St. Patrick's Day", except without the whole "wintery" feel that song had. I normally love songs in 3/4, but this one really feels like we've heard John do it all before - and better. The lyrics make an admirable attempt to urge mothers and especially fathers to "be good to your daughters", and in a world where so many women are brought up without their value, skill, or beauty being acknowledged by their parents, this is an important message made even sweeter by the fact that a man is championing the cause. But it comes off somewhat like a public service announcement. I can't explain it - the song has some really heartwarming lines about how "boys would be gone without warmth from a woman's good, good heart" and so forth - but ultimately I find it difficult to listen to when he stumbles through the overbearing rhymes in the chorus.

Only Heart
And you love like your hand's on the horn, baby
I adore you, but there's a hole in the cup that should hold your love...
It seems that this song would be the opposite of the last one - "great execution, not-so-great lyrics". OK, not an exact opposite, but this one's more about the music than the lyrics. It's a fun, upbeat, electric guitar romp with some great solos and some unexpected key changes (especially since the chorus pops out of the verse rather abruptly). I can appreciate what John's trying to say to the girl he loves in this song - "You've got my only heart", or in other words, "I'm not just gonna run off and hook up with some other girl behind your back, so relax." It just seems a bit too pedestrian compared to the lyrics I know John can come up with. I have to cringe when he gets to the line "Feel my chest when I look at you." John, I think you've done enough singing about your body for one CD.

Wheel
Airports see it all the time
Where someone's last goodbye blends in with someone's sigh
Cause someone's coming home, in hand a single rose...
The album winds down on a mellow note with this delicate, jazzy closing song, which is basically John's take on the old saying "What goes around, comes around". This song finds John going back on his promise to not wax philosophical on us, because he's been hit with the realization that the love he's given out in his lifetime is not wasted, even if those he loved did not love him back. Call it grace, call it karma - John doesn't dig too much into the spiritual stuff, he just simply leaves us with his little mantra as the rest of the music fades out, leaving only his lone voice: "I believe/That my life's gonna see/The love I give/Returned to me." Not too deep, but a nice sentiment.

Overall, this album is pleasant to listen to - with the exception of a few uncomfortable lyrics and those weird noises on "Bigger than My Body", nothing really stands out as annoying. It's just a bit of a letdown that the album isn't more of a consistent attention-grabber like Squares was. The more organic vibe that John's previous album had really helped it to come alive, whereas Heavier Things ends up in limbo for most of its second half. I suspect that fans of John Mayer's lyrical approach won't mind this too much, since they'll be happy to get the next installment of his musings on life and love, but fans of his guitar playing are either going to have to learn to listen carefully, or move on to greener pastures. I'm sure he's as talented on the electric as he is on the old acoustic, and I don't mind the attempt to show off a different side of his musical personality, but in the end, I think I preferred John more when we was less hip and more square.

ALBUM WORTH:
Clarity $2
Bigger than My Body $1.50
Something's Missing $2
New Deep $1
Come Back to Bed $1
Home Life $1.50
Split Screen Sadness $0
Daughters $0
Only Heart $.50
Wheel $1
TOTAL: $10.50

Website: http://www.johnmayer.com

Recommended: Yes

Great Music to Play While: Cleaning the House