John Mayer Room for Squares Album Review, Songs, Rating

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John Mayer
Room for Squares
Release Date: 2001 09 18
Label: Sony Music Distribution
Rating:

After making minor waves with his 1999 debut, Inside Wants Out, John Mayer hired veteran producer John Alagía (a longtime associate of the Dave Matthews Band) to lace his first major-label effort with commercial appeal. Released in September 2001, Room for Squares proved to be a savvy, well-timed album, quietly heralding the end of teen pop's glory days with nuanced wordplay, a relaxed gait, and intricate (although nevertheless accessible) songwriting. Songs like "No Such Thing" and "Neon" mixed jazz chords with digestible choruses, fashioning a sort of brainy, college-educated pop hybrid that found a home amongst discerning listeners and mainstream fans alike. Of course, it didn't hurt that Mayer also loaded the album with more straightforward numbers -- particularly "Your Body Is a Wonderland," a bubbling piece of bedroom pop that helped swell his female audience. Mayer's heralded guitar solos and bluesy, Stevie Ray Vaughan-styled flourishes were sorely absent from the mix, though, as he initially limited the bulk of his fretwork to the acoustic guitar. It would take a jam-friendly concert album -- 2003's Any Given Thursday -- to introduce the breadth of Mayer's axeman skills to the public, but Room for Squares still provides a nice introduction to the songwriter's catalog, highlighting his blend of collegiate pop/rock and sensitive acoustics while only hinting at the eclectic, genre-hopping chameleon he would later become. Andrew Leahey, All Music Guide

Tracks:

	Title	Composer	Time
1	No Such Thing	Cook, Mayer	3:51
2	Why Georgia	Mayer	4:28
3	My Stupid Mouth	Mayer	3:45
4	Your Body Is a Wonderland	Mayer	4:09
5	Neon	Mayer, Cook	4:22
6	City Love	Mayer	4:00
7	83	Mayer	4:50
8	3X5	Mayer	4:50
9	Love Song for No One	Mayer, Cook	3:21
10	Back to You	Mayer	4:01
11	Great Indoors	Mayer	3:36
12	Not Myself	Mayer	3:36
13	[Untitled]	Mayer	:04
14	St. Patrick's Day	Mayer	5:21