Review - John Mayer - Born And Raised

John Mayer, also on his fifth full length, takes a chance and steps away from the pop rock that has brought him so much success and acclaim and ventures into the south and west (away from his Connecticut upbringing). I would call ‘Born And Raised’ Americana and even a bit country before pop, but some pop still finds its way in (and besides, Mayer is one of my favorite artists ever, and he is an extremely well known pop rock artist, so there was no way I wasn’t going to review this album).

After the past few years he’s had, I can understand why Mayer wanted to walk away from it all and do something else. His life (especially in love) has been nothing but tabloid fodder, and it clearly affected his last CD ‘Battle Studies’, which even he is on record as saying it wasn’t his best. ‘Born And Raised’ feels like the soundtrack of John Mayer packing his guitar and leaving it all behind. The album has a fresh sound, but shows that Mayer has clearly been doing his homework in these unfamiliar genres.

What is best about ‘Born And Raised’ is that it doesn’t sound too foreign. Mayer is very convincing in this new persona (he even wears a cowboy hat now), and throughout the album, he proves that all he needs is a guitar and his words and there’s magic. The CD is subdued; the songs sound more “Who Says” than “No Such Thing”. While the music may have a bit more twang to it, the lyrics and the vocals are the same. Mayer is still making you feel bad for all those hearts he’s broken. Well, almost.

Listen to: “Queen of California”, “Shadow Days”, “Speak For Me”, “Born And Raised”, “If I Ever Get Around To Living”, and “Love Is A Verb”