Album Review: John Mayer - Born & Raised

John Mayer has always held a curious position within the industry. He appears to straddle the bounds of being a gifted and intuitive songwriter, greatly respected for his guitar chops, sitting awkwardly alongside his 'celebrity' status that sees him photographed with a different Hollywood babe every other month. It's with slightly reluctant ears then that Born And Raised gets a listen. But true to form, the ever-evolving Mayer pulls it off again with the end result leaving said ears actually quite pleased.

Spreading himself across quite a few different musical genres like blues and hip hop over the past decade has obviously done the boy some favours, ditching the commercial pop sound in favour of a more humble and retrained approach here in all but for the plodding and predictable guitar formalities of Shadow Days. Opener Queen Of California sees Mayer take on a vibrant almost folk guitar noodler, farewelling his former penchant for wailing guitar licks. Shades of them resurface further on in the bluesy Something Like Olivia and Love Is A Verb, the latter spacing out the lyric over some sparse and pretty guitar/organ phrases. Vocally there's no faulting the guy on the title track, allowing his husky mid-range pipes to be softened by some nice harmonies, and reaching for some highs in the instantly likeable If I Ever Get Around To Living with its pleasing minor dips.

Overall it's a nice, solid album; a few songs will be lost in memory but most will seep under the skin. At the very least, anything that replaces Your Body Is A Wonderland can only be a good thing.