This album has a song I'm particularly fond of, "The Heart of Life". The lyrical gems for me are "Pain throws your heart to the ground; love turns the whole thing around; I know the heart of life is good" and "Fear is a friend who's misunderstood." The first lyric seems obvious (although we seem to be able to ignore that unshakeable knowingness sometimes - A Course In Miracles uses the analogy of a child's nightmare). The second lyric about fear being a misunderstood friend reminds me of a quote (not sure of the attribution) about the egoic mind being a great passenger (warning system) but a lousy driver. Move over ego! :-)

Track Listing

1. Waiting On The World To Change
2. I Don't Trust Myself (With Loving You)
3. Belief
4. Gravity
5. The Heart Of Life
6. Vultures
7. Stop This Train
8. Slow Dancing In A Burning Room
9. Bold As Love
10. Dreaming With A Broken Heart
11. In Repair
12. I'm Gonna Find Another You

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #135 in Music
• Released on: 2006-09-12
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.com
Continuum is about as apt a title as it gets for John Mayer's third studio disc. Every element, from the peerless guitar playing to the plainspoken poetry of the lyrics to the breathy-sincere singing, makes a return from previous efforts. But to weakly pronounce this another worthwhile effort from an artist the world has come to expect a whole lot from and then call it a day would be no minor misdeed, because it's also the best, boldest disc he's ever made. Taking maturity as a theme throughout, Mayer tackles a batch of adulthood's bogeymen: indifference on the uptempo chart-climber "Waiting for the World to Change," aging on the melancholy-sweet "Stop This Train," and emotional trainwreckage on the big-rocking "In Repair." That's not to suggest he's turned overly introspective--check the Jimi Hendrix cover "Bold As Love," where he hits one home for guitarists who've been living in the shadow of legend everywhere, and the hard-charging "Belief," which benefits from a mesmerizing, liquid groove. Continuum may be the third in a series, but a creative cop-out this is not; Mayer is his generation's musical superman--powerful, unassailable, and magnetic. Hand that man a cape. --Tammy La Gorce

Amazon.com
John Mayer's third studio album follows the multi-platinum "Room for Squares" (2001) and "Heavier Things" (2003), and marks his first turn as producer. It is his most soulful, cohesive collection yet and he says it's no accident that this project is where all of his efforts, his potential, and his disparate influences fully come together.

More from Mayer

Room for Squares	Heavier Things	Try!, the John Mayer Trio
Inside Wants Out (EP)	Any Given Thursday (CD)	Any Given Thursday (DVD)

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Customer Reviews

Mayer's Masterstroke
The magic of John Mayer's music lies in the way how simple and easy to understand it is to an average listener, while keeping excellent quality that should satisfy even the most morose and sharp critics. It is no exaggeration to name "Continuum" not only one of the best albums of the decade, but also to demand ensuring it a place on TOP 100 lists of all time and adding John Mayer to Hall of Fame. I give such praise very rarely, here are my reasons:

1) songwriting is extra strong
2) every man can identify with lyrics, John Mayer is not playing too intellectual or sophisticated, yet the words are by no means trite
3) and maybe the most powerful side of the album are its instrumental performances and arrangements.

Mayer, an excellent guitar player (who else could cover Jimi Hendrix's "Bold As Love" profusely and not make it sound out-of-place on a breezy pop-blues album like this?) surrounded himself with a group of equally excellent musicians (e.g. Pino Palladino), giving each song its very own feel, making them uniformly beautiful, different from each other and at the same time wonderfully accessible.

Lyrical side is strong, too - while John's unassuming modesty encourages every listener to confide in him with his broken heart or joy in return, Mayer touches also on the worldwide events ("Waiting On A World To Change"), even doing it in an irresistible musical way (witness "Belief", one of the best-arranged tune of recent years). And when you think that the next song just cannot be so great as the previous one, comes the ballad "Dreaming With A Broken Heart" or a closer "I'm Gonna Find Another You", where a simple, light breakup tune is profoundly helped by a bluesy structure.

Thanks, John. This album should stay immortal.

My first John Mayer experience
If I had to give this review another title, it would be "above-average pop singer-songwriter album effort". But you see, I didn't, because something about that title doesn't flow quite correctly. I'm not talking about how accurately it describes the album, I'm talking about how accurately the statement conveys the underlying idea.

With "Continuum", there seems to be a similar problem.
It's quite obvious Mayer has both an excellent vocal range and a propensity for guitar. Pretty much any song on this, his third album, will pay tribute to his somewhat limited, if solid vocal range; "Vultures" even shows off a pretty good falsetto. His cover of "Bold As Love" certainly demonstrates his guitar ability beyond any reasonable doubt.

He also has an ear for catchy rhythms and choruses. "Waiting on the World to Change" and "I Don't Trust Myself With Loving You", the album's opening two tracks, set the album off with some serious momentum that he never takes advantage of. Meaningful lyrics are also easy to find. "Waiting"'s lyrics border on anthemic about his generation's inaction, "Gravity" seems to deal with a fear of a young death. "Dreaming With a Broken Heart" and "I'm Gonna Find Another You" do a good, if somewhat overdramatic, job of summing the feelings of, well, a broken-hearted lover.

However, he never quite manages to put all these elements together at any one moment. A graceful piano line drops in after an especially awkward chorus on "Stop This Train", for example. It's apparent that Mayer has huge potential, but he too often focuses on the "pop" aspects of his songs at the expense of replayability. He goes for the anthemic, catchy choruses and the catchy, clever guitar line at any opportunity. This is not necessarily a bad thing, of course, but it makes for monotonous listening, and most songs are fairly closely held within the standard singer-songwriter range: mid-tempo ballads/narratives with piano, a soft acoustic/electric guitar, and some drums mixed in there as well, with a bass line being occasionally noticeable.

John Mayer takes some risks on this album, no doubt: trying to speak for a whole generation is pretty ballsy, and the frankness with which he sings about his feelings on some songs deserves admiration. He goes out on a limb by covering a frickin' Jimi Hendrix song, but he really doesn't add much to the song or do anything special with the inevitable guitar solo. As if to add to underline how plain-Jane he makes even Hendrix sound, both of the John Mayer fans I talked to recently about the album had no idea that "Bold As Love" was even a cover. Ugh.

Next album, I'd like to see Mayer think outside the confines of the pop singer-songwriter genre a little more. Because at age 30, he can't continue to sing about being young and about past girlfriends much longer. If I were to have a conclusion to this review it would be thus: "Watch this guy, because if he thinks outside the box a little more on his next album, the results could be amazing."

And that sounds a little better, right?

Score: 7.25/10

CONTINUUM
This Cd by John Mayer was everything I had expected. Good listening and thoughtful.