John Mayer
's 2013 album, the Americana-tinged
Paradise Valley
, is an introspective if somewhat more upbeat affair than his similarly country-inflected 2012 release,
Born and Raised
. With that album,
Mayer
was coming off a rough career patch that found him issuing a mea culpa for an infamously loose-lipped 2010
Rolling Stone
interview. Making matters worse, in 2011 the singer/songwriter announced he would be going on extended hiatus from performing while he received treatment for granulomas found near his vocal cords. Subsequently, with
,
moved away from the commercial pop of 2010's
Battle Studies
and toward an intimate, largely acoustic, '70s Laurel Canyon-inspired sound with songs that featured plenty of apologetic soul-searching. Named after the Montana river valley where
owns a cabin and spends much of his time when not touring,
continues in this more intimate country-folk style and often feels less like a stand-alone album and more like a companion piece to
. Which isn't to say it's a lesser work. On the contrary,
actually hangs together better than
, with songs that achieve a balance between
's electric
Eric Clapton
influence and his softer
James Taylor
-inspired side. Although his self-imposed period of supplication seems to have ended,
still has plenty of troubles on his mind. Whether comparing his life on the road to the life of an old girlfriend he webstalks online, as he does on "Dear Marie," or struggling with his wanderlust and inability to call one place home, as he does on "Badge and Gun,"
is clearly still struggling with some of life's bigger issues. As he sings to his old girlfriend on "Dear Marie," "Yeah I got that dream, but you got yourself a family." It's this knack for turning his personal worries into universally relatable ones that helps
avoid coming off as too self-absorbed and entitled. It is also this ability that helps him finesse "Paper Doll" from simply being a nasty swipe at rumored onetime paramour
Taylor Swift
(
Swift
purportedly wrote the song "Dear John" after being dumped by
) into a superbly crafted and gorgeous song about romancing someone more emotionally vulnerable than yourself. Elsewhere,
delivers a soulful rendition of
J.J. Cale
's "Call Me the Breeze" -- the most straightforward blues cut on the album -- and delves into two synergistic duets, the first with on-and-off girlfriend
Katy Perry
on "Who You Love" and the second with R&B auteur
Frank Ocean
on "Wildfire." That
fails to cite country legend
Ernest Tubb
as the inspiration for "You're No One 'Til Someone Lets You Down," which basically cribs the melody from
Tubb
's "Walking the Floor Over You," might seem more of an oversight if he hadn't made it so obvious from the start that he was clearly drawing from the deep well of country music's past on
. Ultimately, whether it's
's honky tonk twang, or the twang of
's own heart, the sound of
rings true. ~ Matt Collar