10 Great Albums By Artists People Hate

There's a good case to be made that John Mayer is the reason why people don't want soft rock on the charts anymore. As much as it would be nice to have some rock representation on the Top 40 stations, the smug attitude that John conducted himself with throughout his reign of terror made the cool guitar player seem like the biggest douche in the universe, almost concerned more about his pickup lines with the ladies than the chords he was playing. John did have some legitimate chops though, and Continuum might stand as one of the more perfect pop albums to come since the turn of the millennium.

Having already honed his songcrafting on his last two projects, this feels like the first time where John cut all of the BS out of his sound and just focused on writing concise pop tunes, all while bringing some of the most difficult riffs that he's ever committed to tape. With studio veterans like Pino Palladino helping him out, songs like Gravity and Stop This Train are genuine pop marvels, as John shifts his more dorky singer songwriter approach towards songs about the passage of time and knowing how long you have left.

When the man rips a solo though, he really swings for the fences with lines you can sing along to like the different clean tones he gets out of Slow Dancing in a Burning Room or the pop sensibilities of I Don't Trust Myself With Loving You. It takes someone special to cover a legend like Jimi Hendrix and actually pull it off, but John definitely belongs among that crew.