well on the topic of john mayer....
he's great! i've known about that even before continuum.
to me, "no such thing" sounded like the style council at first. my band first circle used to cover songs from the "room for squares" album.
not because it was the hip thing to do, but we all liked his songs.
back to you, neon, city love, my stupid mouth are all good examples of good songwriting, good pop, great guitar statements.
no shredhead, i always loved his chords, rhythm guitar style and his SRV--blues charged licks even if the songs he was doing weren't blues.
still can't get over that album. heavier things and the other new ones were all great too of course.
even the song that propelled him to stardom, that short guitar interlude in Dm in the song "your body is a wonderland" might be short be it is straight to the point and very eloquent...more so than most of the solos you hear out there. say more with less notes.