グラミー賞の常連、天才シンガー・ソングライターにして名ギタリストのジョン・メイヤー。全米初登場No.1アルバム『バトル・スタディーズ』に続き、2年半ぶり、待望のニュー・アルバム『ボーン・アンド・レイズド』が遂に完成！オリジナル・スタジオ・アルバムとしては通算5作目となる。これまでにスタジオ・アルバムを4枚発表し、全世界アルバム・トータルセールスは1700万枚を超えると同時に、7つのグラミー賞を受賞するなど、人気だけでなくその実力も高く評価されているジョン。内省的な歌詞、情感溢れるメロディ、メロウ＆スモーキーなヴォーカル、同業者も絶賛するギタープレイで、B.B.キング、エリック・クラプトンからアリシア・キーズ、ジェイ・Zまで、ジャンル・国境・世代を超えて多くの人々を惹きつけてやまない。今作ではプロデューサーにDon Was（Rolling Stones、B.B. King、Joe Cocker）を迎えて制作。アルバム・タイトルトラックでは、ロック・レジェンドのデビッド・クロスビーとグラハム・ナッシュの黄金コンビとのコラボレーションも実現。また先行シングル「Shadow Days」は早くも全米中のラジオで大ヒット中。ペダルスチールの心地よい音色がジョンのヴォーカルと最高のベストマッチを織りなす秀逸トラックに仕上がっている。

発売・販売元 提供資料 （2012/04/20）

Entertainment Weekly (p.74) - "[H]e's brought a laid-back country vibe to BORN, tapping Don Was to produce and draping his folk melodies in pedal steel and violin." -- Grade: B Uncut (p.77) - "The Don Was-produced album proceeds at an unhurried pace, featuring Jackson Browne-like confessionals and Young-style, harmonica-accented shuffles..." Billboard (p.32) - "[H]e visits the Laurel Canyon of the early '70s....With a crack band and guests like Chris Botti and Sara Watkins, it fits Mayer well for his most consistently satisfying release yet."

Rovi

Nothing halts the momentum of a career like a few poorly chosen words to the press. Take John Mayer, who in 2009 still seemed like the quintessential modern lothario, singing sweet songs of love and seducing starlets all across Hollywood. Then at the dawn of 2010, just months after the release of his fourth album, Battle Studies, he gave an interview with Playboy where he managed to insult former and current lovers while callously dropping racial slurs, a snafu plenty difficult to survive, but its gravity was compounded when his former lover Taylor Swift wrote a nasty kiss-off "Dear John" at the end of the year, a move that effectively banished him to the outskirts of L.A. -- which, if the sound of his 2012 comeback is any indication, resides somewhere around the vicinity of Laurel Canyon. Yes, the public humiliation and a subsequent health scare have pushed Mayer back in time, all the way back to the turn of the '70s when singer/songwriters across Southern California strummed their guitars and sang about their souls, back when his idol Eric Clapton was obsessed with the rootsy tumble of Delaney & Bonnie. Mayer never rock & rolls the way EC did when he was in love with D&B, but he certainly is emphasizing his affection for American roots, particularly of the folk and country kind. Those two sounds are the best vehicles for the kind of solipsism Mayer engages in on Born and Raised, where he does his best to sound sorrowful and contrite yet manages to stumble upon his own deep-seated desire to remain a lover-man. He doesn't murmur come-ons; he plaintively says he's sorry over austere acoustic backdrops, taking pains to ensure that Born and Raised feels weathered, rustic, and lived-in. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Rovi