Heavier Things - John Mayer

Author's product rating:   

Originality	Definitely a cut above the rest
Lyrics	Thought-provoking
Quality and consistency of tracks	Flawless
How does it compare to the artist's other releases	Good
Value for Money	Good

Advantages:	Great set of songs
Disadvantages:	None I can think of, but its not going to be everyones cup of tea like always !

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

John Mayer - Heavier Things - Rock / Pop (Acoustic)

~UPDATE : Sorry miss read my information, John was born in Connecticut, and has since lived in Boston, and currently Atlanta! Sorry for any confusion there!

John is from Atlanta, USA, and is very well known over in the states, but less know elsewhere L His music was underground for a while until he shot to success with his first hit single "No Such Thing". His music, on the whole is a VERY well crafted set of musically pleasing songs that cover such a wide range of incorporated styles and some amazing guitar playing that is so simple but so strikingly effective. As you can tell I have nothing to sing but praises for the man at the moment, and I enjoy listening to his music very much.

I think this is one of the very few albums that I own where I wont say, "you might want to skip this track" to any of the songs!

01 - Clarity
A nice peaceful piano tune introduces the song, with a gentle build up, and a steady beat. Some of his now trademark high singing comes in before the guitar work picks up filling some of the emptiness in the song. The lyrics are soft and gentle with some nice parts of harmony vocals. The only thing I am not so keen on is the use brass section.

02 - Bigger Than My Body
The opening for this song always leaves me puzzled, being a guitar player I always wonder how they get the introduction weird harmonic intro. (If anyone knows please leave something a comment!). This song to me signifies breaking free and letting loose, and the song has a great up lifting feeling with nice inter-weaving parts. The choruses are a nice highlight of the song with a variety of different instruments all playing their own little thing providing lots for the listener to hear every time they listen to the song. This is a very common theme with John's work, and its probably part of the success to being able to listen to his songs over and over again.

03 - Something's Missing
A soft guitar introduction breaks into the verse, where the vocals are soft, but sad, with a lovely melodic guitar part backing them. The song is quite slow building up, and has a very clear sad atmosphere to it. Some of the layering of instruments is fantastically well done and it all works very well. A good song although it has a sad yearning feeling, it becomes more hopeful towards the end with a key change into a more hopeful and happy sounding chord sequence.

04 - New Deep
A rather funky clean guitar riff brings in another accompanying guitar over the top, where upon the drums merge in without you really realising. The lyrics although sung sound like someone telling a story, the story. The thing with John's songs is that the guitar work is just as interesting as the vocals! Which is the case here in this lovely chill out song.

05 - Come Back To Bed
With echoes of country music in it, this is very much a love song. Very soft, tender playing keeps this song very low paced, and again follows a rather chilled out mood, with a rather neutral mood. The vocals suggest sadness, but the music keeps the mood light. Again I am not too sure of the horn use in this song, it is probably real instruments but just sounds a little out of place.

06 - Home Life
Something very jungle or journey provoking music comes in, with an up-tempo beat backing it and pushing the song on gently. A song about not exploring the world but staying at home and exploring the indoors, being comfortable at home. Maybe not as interesting as the last few but the alteration of style and use of a different array of instruments keeps this song interesting, although not his best in my opinion.

07 - Split Screen Sadness
An organ provides most of the backing with the bass and vocals. It's all very gentle and relaxing, with the vocals clearly coming through, where upon they are boosted with the guitars working nicely underneath the vocals without drawing the attention to them too much. Maybe the song gets a bit too "busy" in the chorus with strings, guitars, vocals, bass and drums amongst many things. The nice thing about this song is the musical progression it takes moving through many different chord sequences with modifications, almost evolving along the way, but he does this marvellously without the song loosing direction which is vital to keeping someone listen I feel. This is his massive composition skill coming through in style.

08 - Daughters
An amazingly touching and tender song. Here the vocals do most of the crooning and this track is probably the tearjerker on the album. This has been a great success in the charts winning him a Grammy. Heralded to make young girls and women weep alike, it's an emotionally compelling song that is very much worth a listen. The un-cluttered instrumentation is a great asset to this song allowing the tonality of the vocals to come through.

09 - Only Heart
I really love the introduction riff to this song! It's punchy, lively and full of kick! An increased paced song compared to the last few tracks this helps spice up the album again. Some subtle musical changes help this song progress along without ideas and phrases being over used and becoming boring. Each time a different riff is added over, or the instruments have changed the parts they were playing, his music seems to evolve during the songs duration. I think I always seem to pay more attention to the music going on in the background so I cant really say what the songs about, but have a listen to it and see for yourself!

10 - Wheel
A wind down song from the last, Wheel is a progressive song about live going on and things changing. The very loud bass on this song although obtrusive at times adds depth to this song very much complimenting the melody of the lyrics. The guitar work is subtle and fits into its slot so very well. Another tribute to the composition as well as the producing of the album. Maybe the song is too long at 5:32 and spread out, but its bearable.

Total running time is 46 minutes, which isn't too bad for just 10 songs! I feel that some of these songs don't have the same punch as his earlier stuff, and that these are much more lax. More of a great melodic chill out album. If you have heard John's earlier work, such as "Room for Squares" This is very much worth adding to the collection! A great collection of songs!