After a four-year break, singer-songwriter and guitarist John Mayer returns releasing “Wave One” of his new upcoming studio album The Search For Everything. Mayer announced in an Instagram post that he would be releasing four songs at a time every month because “there were too many songs to ever get out the door at once.”

For the past year, Mayer has been touring with rock band Dead & Company as a feature guitarist and will continue touring with them this forthcoming summer. While on the road, Mayer has been trying to further his solo career by working on his new music. After the tour, in mid November, he unveiled “Love on the Weekend,” the lead single of his album which gave a preview and a hint to fans on what he has coming for them. “John Mayer has always been one of my favorite artists and I was so excited when this song came out because it’s been so long,” senior Madison Walsh said. “It reminds me of some of his old songs, but I like it because I still listen to his classics.”

Wave One includes four tracks: the pre-released single and three other new tracks. The album was recorded by not only Mayer, but also the same musicians and producers from his hit 2006 album Continuum. The Continuum crew includes Steve Jordan, Pino Palladino, Chad Franscoviak, Martin Pradler, Manny Marroquin, and Greg Calbi, whom Mayer gave credit to on Twitter. He also tweeted that the songs on the album represent “literally hundreds of hours of living inside of these little worlds. And more to come.”

The first new track “Moving on and Getting Better” is one of the album’s more groovy and uplifting songs. It opens with classic guitar solos, which is what all fans love about Mayer. It has Continuum-style blues and features a hook where the percussion drops and each lyric is accentuated. Personally, this was the best track off Wave One.

Following this is “Changing.” It starts with vocals and a solo piano then transitions to a combination of acoustic guitar and the full band. Later in the song, it takes a turn building up to another more dramatic guitar solo with the Mayer’s vocals in the back repeating “Hearts keep changing.” According to listeners, this song is the weakest and least favorite out of the other four.

The last track is “You’re Gonna Live Forever in Me,” which is slower than the others. The song opens with whistling and a piano joined by Mayer’s soothing vocals and lyrics. It sounds similar to his song “Dreaming of a Broken Heart” and has a Toy Story “You’ve Got a Friend in Me” vibe. It is a cherry on top and brings a collective end to the first wave of his album.

So far, the album has received generally good reviews due to the fact that it is more like his old popular albums. “I think the whole album is gonna be a hit and will incorporate some old and new stuff,” senior Tehya Moss said.

Mayer has recently announced that he will be hitting the road and going on tour for the new album this spring. Wave One of The Search For Everything was released on January 20th and many await for Mayer to release the rest of the tracks and have high expectations.