Continuum
John Mayer
Aware/Columbia
Maybe I wasn't listening close enough, but I always found John Mayer easy to dismiss as just another cute strummer boy with passingly catchy tunes. I can't dismiss him now. Continuum is, at its core, a blue-eyed soul album, and I love a good blue-eyed soul album. It finds our 28-year-old singer-songwriter damn near all grown up.
Mayer makes it plain from the jump with "Waiting on the World to Change," a lovely, mid-tempo homage to Curtis Mayfield (with an instrumental bridge that nods to Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On") that is, in its own understated way, a protest song. Mayer grits up his voice, but doesn't manufacture a bunch of phony melisma to infuse a bunch of faux soul. In fact, he stays similarly subdued throughout, and though the persistent sigh in his voice can become a tad wearisome, he makes for a solid blue-eyed-soul singer.
Continuum represents Mayer's best reconciliation between his perky singer-songwriter side and his alter ego as a Hendrix-worshipping blues guitarist. Most of his solos are tightly edited and understated, which is appropriate for this kind of slinky R&B. Ironically enough, one of the disc's least effective tunes is a cover of Jimi's "Bold as Love" — it sounds as if a boy was sent to a do man's job.
Mayer, who's always drawn inspiration from his elders, enlisted a core rhythm section of drummer Steve Jordan (who produced), bassist Pino Palladino and keyboardist Ricky Peterson. The result is a clean, unpretentious sound that's long on taste, if a bit lean on energy (genuinely raucous, uptempo tunes are conspicuously absent). About two-thirds through, Continuum begins to flag just a bit, and overall the album may be just a bit too perfect. But in the final analysis, the disc is a mature artistic success that (maybe because I wasn't listening closely enough) I hardly expected. 3.5 stars —Eric Snider
Magic Potion
The Black Keys
Nonesuch
Back alleys, bad mojo, forbidden sex. And that's just what's conjured up by Dan Auerbach's guitar. Factor in his yearning soul moan and Patrick Carney's unruly drums, and you end up with something very, very heavy — far heavier than all the double-bass-drum, drop-tuned metal out there. This shit gets under your skin. The Black Keys, a garage-blues-rock duo from Akron, drop their first disc for a major label, with a sound that remains raw, unprocessed and homemade. Auerbach's songwriting shows continued growth; most of the uptempo tunes are built around huge, chunky riffs that'd make Jimmy Page beam. Auerbach's guitar playing takes on more texture as well, ranging from greasy slide smears to Hendrixian chord riffs. Running through it all is a blues-rooted honesty, an unbridled intensity, that's just, well, rare. 4 stars —ES
I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass
Yo La Tengo
Matador
Yo La Tengo drops album number 12, its best and most eclectic since the '97 masterwork I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One. Whereas the band's previous two records were mostly moody, mumbling affairs, this one's got a whole world of sound over 77 minutes, from primal rave-ups to stuttering wanna-be-funk and tender drones. Basically, the litmus test for this album is the first track, "Pass the Hatchet, I Think I'm Goodkind" — which you can download for free from the label's website. It's 10 minutes of feedback fuzz, six notes on the bass and rock-steady percussion, with occasional vocal bursts from Ira Kaplan. This is indie rock. You either love this shit or you don't. 4 stars —Cooper Levey-Baker
(One)
The Panic Channel
Capitol
Half of the original Jane's Addiction lineup (guitarist Dave Navarro and drummer Stephen Perkins) hooked up with journeyman bassist Chris Chaney and vocalist/MTV VJ Steve Isaacs for this generic collection, which poaches from third-tier grunge with predictable results. While (One) is not quite as reprehensible as Navarro's '01 solo outing Trust No One, it works in similar territory, attempting to put various twists on a style of modern rock aimed squarely at mainstream FM airwaves, but never coming up with anything remotely original or interesting. Cliché-ridden power ballads "Bloody Mary," "She Won't Last" and "Outsider" are particularly odious, but all of the neat guitar effects in the world can't disguise the fact that nearly everything else here alternates between stuffed-crotch Zeppelinisms and inferior Radiohead Lite imitation. 1 star —Scott Harrell
This article appears in Sep 27 – Oct 4, 2006.