声声不息 (2006)

Continuum is the third studio album by American singer-songwriter John Mayer, released on September 12, 2006, by Aware and Columbia Records. Recording sessions took place from January 2005 to July 2006 at The Village Recorder in Los Angeles, Avatar Studios and Right Track/Sound on Sound in New York City, and Royal Studios in Memphis, Tennessee. Produced by singer and drummer Steve Jordan, it marked a change in Mayer's musical style, incorporating elements of blues and soul more heavily than in his previous work with pop rock. Bassist Pino Palladino also performs on the album; Mayer, Jordan, and Palladino had toured the previous year under the name John Mayer Trio and had released a live album, Try!. Studio versions of two of the songs from that album appear on Continuum.

The album debuted at number 2 on the US Billboard 200, selling more than 300,186 copies in its first week of sales. It also reached the top-10 of several other countries and sold over 5 million copies worldwide. Upon its release, Continuum received generally positive reviews from critics, and earned Mayer several accolades, including a Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Album and Best Male Pop Vocal Performance at the 49th Grammy Awards. Rolling Stone named it the 11th best album of 2006; in 2020, they ranked it number 486 on its 2020 updated list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

Background

Mayer made the decision to name his third album Continuum at least a year before the album was released. In his column in the April 2005 issue of Esquire, Mayer wrote, "I'm obsessed with time lately, constantly crunching the numbers to get some sense of where I stand in the continuum." In his column in the September 2005 issue of Esquire he confirmed the title, writing, "I've never experienced anything like the recording process involved in making Continuum, my third-album-to-be."

The album features mainly new songs, though "Gravity" and "Vultures" are available in live versions from John Mayer Trio's Try!, and "Bold as Love" is a Jimi Hendrix cover: the first Hendrix cover that Mayer has ever recorded as a studio release, although Mayer had played "Bold as Love" live many times prior to the release of Continuum such as on the televised Tsunami Aid: A Concert of Hope on January 15, 2005, and has since recorded other Hendrix songs such as "The Wind Cries Mary" and "Wait Until Tomorrow" in live settings. The album contains a collaboration between Mayer and 8-string guitarist Charlie Hunter on "In Repair". The song "Stop This Train" was written during a time of, what Mayer calls, "solitary refinement"; he was in bed suffering from double kidney stones and living in a hotel while finding a new residence.

Cover art

The word "Continuum" is showcased across the center. The typography for the title was customized to give the letters "C" and "o" the appearance of an infinity symbol: ∞. Many of the following letters touch in some way; the right vertical line of the second "u" is the left vertical line of the "m" in the title.