John Mayer Stays Smooth In "The Search For Everything"

Everyone knows John Mayer for his smoothness, but it sounds like he takes it to another level in his new album. Through his bluesy timbre and crooning vocals, John Mayer stays smooth in The Search For Everything.

There's a lot of sweetness on this album - it's almost like it's a cake. The album begins on the gooey 'Still Feel Like Your Man' that sees Mayer continuously crooning "I still feel like your man" above a nice instrumental. The guitars have a confident flair to them as they move along the track. It's followed by the similarly sweet 'Emoji Of A Wave,' which is based on a pretty odd metaphor that kind of makes sense, but almost feels ingenuine given its subject (surely there are better emojis for this).

Lots of The Search For Everything comes off in a way that John Mayer probably didn't intend for it to. 'Love On The Weekend' was clearly meant to be a pretty nice song about finding love at the right time, but it really gets annoying fast, as if there's nothing to the song besides finding "love on the weekend." The country rock vibes in 'Roll It On Home' feel like they were meant to have a warm and fuzzy feeling, but it just feels really weak in the end without much promise.

The only moment on the record that really stands out to me is 'Helpless.' It has a nice pop rock drive to it and actually has a sense of moving forward its meaning. It doesn't get caught up in the same repeating phrase to beat it to death, and its instrumental sounds very creative. There's lots of moving parts and plenty of rocking guitar moments that make it not only smooth, but also pretty cool. You really feel the blues coming out on this one.

John Mayer seems to have had good intentions on The Search For Everything, but fell a bit short. Few moments on The Search For Everything really stand out as memorable, or as even remotely impressive. John Mayer stays smooth in The Search For Everything but gets lost in trying to be a heartthrob. The blues rock cake is much too sweet here.

Favorite Track: Helpless

Least Favorite Tracks: Roll It On Home, Love On The Weekend

Rating: 66 / 100

Buy or listen to The Search For Everything here: