""I'm gonna do some things you wouldn't let me do,"" John Mayer sings on the closing track to his new album, Continuum. The line, like so many others on the record, is an indignant remonstration of love gone awry, but it may as well serve as Mayer's battle cry for the past two years. If 2005's John Mayer Trio live release Try! was a cry for credibility from the uber-talented but oft-maligned ""Wonderland"" singer, then Continuum plays as a certified proclamation of newfound worth.
Fans of Mayer's previous solo releases may initially be startled by the heavy soul and R&B influences that color Continuum, but thanks to the singer's unflinching commitment to his own pop sensibilities and tasteful arrangements, the fusion works remarkably well.
The album is not so much an exercise in '70s guitar god worship as it is Mayer's own subdued ""bluesman in faded jeans"" take on popular music. When the formula finds its stride, as it does in the sexy swagger of ""Vultures,"" Mayer establishes himself as king of a genre that he may very well call his own.
In other songs, however, the singer appears torn between the stark landscape of soul music and the easily digested pop flourishes that characterized his earlier work. In the lead single, ""Waiting on the World to Change,"" Mayer's earnest plea for political change is briefly lost behind the jingle of a toy piano. The apologetic defense of generational apathy is right on the mark, but the end feels slightly awkward.
Fortunately, ""Waiting"" marks the album's lone slip-up. Mayer and Trio bandmate and accomplished session drummer Steve Jordan (The Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan) took their time in producing Continuum, and the results are telling. Driven by a Clapton-cool six-note guitar figure played over a hip-hop drum beat, ""Belief"" is the album's best-produced track. Aided by the guitar playing of Mayer-pal Ben Harper, the song provides a surprisingly critical look at the American belief system and shows the more raw side of the 28-year-old Mayer.
Elsewhere, Mayer finds himself ""Slow Dancing in a Burning Room"" with an ex-flame to the circling caress of his electric guitar. The song is a stinging upgrade of Heavier Things' ""Come Back to Bed,"" and showcases the singer's newborn penchant for penning pain-tinged slow jams.
Despite the seemingly progressive approach of these new tunes, Mayer cannot abandon his sensitive guy routine altogether, and the album's most familiar sounding tracks are among the best the singer has ever written. Hallmark sentimentality abounds in ""The Heart of Life,"" a countrified ballad that manages to capture the dreamlike quality of the lyrics without becoming sleep-inducing.
Even better, however, is ""Stop this Train,"" Mayer's meditation on aging and the lone acoustic track on the album. As the singer's guitar slaps along to the rhythm of a moving train, we are reminded that Continuum marks only a single stop along a long journey.
Thanks to another collection of poignant and timeless songs, listeners should be happy to stay along for the ride.
