John Mayer always meant two things to me. A decent blues guitarist who gets encouragement from seniors like Eric Clapton and Budy Guy, with appearances in festival like Crossroads, and a pop-ish singer who did songs like the cheesy Your Body Is A Wonderland and became big in the music world.

That’s when ‘Born and Raised’ his 5^th studio album came to me and perceptions changed. A confessional folk/country/Americana work influenced by the likes of Bob Dylan, Neil Young and CSNY (in fact, Mayer gets Cosby and Nash to add vocals to the title track). All the 12 tracks in this LP has the aroma (sometimes unnecessarily strong, but come on this is John Mayer), of confidence, maturity and honesty, both musically and lyrically. Arrangements are perfect and the great producer Don Was’s (and Mayer’s) production work is impeccable. This is a perfect coming of age album.

Musically, it’s polished. Lyrically, it’s raw and rough. Instead of taking each track one by one, let me take lyrical and musical examples from a few tracks to elucidate this.

Consider these lines from Shadow Days, talking about overcoming his past ghosts (and there are many…his fans would know). “I’m a good man with a good heart Had a tough time, got a rough start But I finally learned to let it go Now I’m right here, and I’m right now And I’m open, knowing somehow That my shadow days are over”

Or his unabashed love for music of the past era in Speak To Me, in: “You can tell that something isn’t right When all your heroes are in black and white”

Or the honesty in the title track Born and Raised. “And all at once it gets hard to take It gets hard to fake what I won’t be” Musically speaking, each song has a well thought of (with an engineered precision) start and finish, with the right amount of instruments coming in at the right places. Whether it’s the trumpet by Chris Botti in Walt Grace’s Submarine Test, January 1967, or the sublime intro and outro in If I Ever Get Around To Living, this being my favourite track from the album (I can write a complete review for the track but that’s for another occasion). The leisurely pace of the album never lets go of the tightness of the sound.

Probably there is just one weak song in the entire album, Love Is A Verb. Its repetitive mushiness (remember the cheesy zone) becomes a little difficult to handle after a while.

Mr Mayer’s love for Dylan (and other musicians of 60’s / 70’s) also gets reflected in him choosing to make this a double LP (a la Blonde on Blonde), adding that retro feel to the whole affair (even the cover art is immaculately retro). Perhaps Mr Mayer just wanted to feed that secret dream of making a double LP a dream which any musician idolizing the music of that era will harbour. As for my perception regarding Mr Mayer, I keep a track of his career very closely. Last heard, he formed the band Dead & Company with former members of Grateful Dead. Another indication of where he is going with his music – a good place.

Year: 2012

Genre: Folk, Country, Americana

Duration: 44:10

Label: Columbia, Sony Music

Producer: John Mayer, Don Was

Rating: 4.5/5

Reviewed by Meraj Hasan

Meraj Hasan is a Mumbai based communication professional (and an amateur poet/musician) with a passion for listening to music the vinyl way. His 25 year old Technics turntable along with a humble collection of LPs across genres like Classic rock, Classical, Blues and Jazz (amongst others) are his prized possessions.

He can be reached at +91 9833410791 or email: meraj.hasan@gmail.com .