Where Things Come Back

Mize, a native of Clearwater, Kansas, sings of "the USA that time forgot," where things don't seem to change on a weekly basis. It's a container for memories - Springsteen's voice on the radio, unseen romances in the moonlight - but also a place that will wait when your dreams carry you beyond the city limits sign. "Come Back Road," written by Josh Kear, Ross Copperman and Rodney Clawson, benefits from symmetry in the production - a fingerpicked acoustic guitar and Mize's serrated edge vocals give way to a contemporary, thunderous drum loop before returning to the acoustic strums.

John Mayer's big-label debut was a multiplatinum breakthrough success whose sensual anthem "Your Body Is a Wonderland" scored him an unlikely Grammy for Best Pop Vocal. That out-of-the-box succes–and more than a few critics grousing that Mayer's muse was cloned from Dave Matthews–primed him for the typical sophomore slump. Instead, Mayer delivers an album whose tone and title suggests a gentle, tongue-in-cheek rebuke to his naysayers.