★★★★★
After his sensitive soul-boy debut and a major label follow-up that flirted with ELO-style cleverness, Michigan auteur Hawthorne has synthesised his influences into perfect power pop, with the help of producers including Pharrell Williams.
There's a nod to Steely Dan, Lewis Taylor and even The Beatles, while lyrically he morphs from nerd to jock, though not entirely convincingly. A bonus four-track CD is even better.
- www.independent.co.uk
2013-07-30
★★★★★
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No one has rated this album. You can be the first. Mayer Hawthorne - Where Does This Door Go?Mayer Hawthorne - Where Does This Door Go?Release Date: July 16th, 2013
Record Label: Republic Records
Mayer Hawthorne has become one of the most interesting figures in music since taking the stage name live in 2008...
- www.absolutepunk.net
2013-07-26
★★★★★
Mayer Hawthorne has become one of the most interesting figures in music since taking the stage name live in 2008. Growing up near Detroit, Mayer was born in a town that was once a musical landmark for soul, which led to his career beginnings as an emcee and DJ and slowly turned into something special. Diving head first into the heart of Detroit, Mayer began making soul and R&B music, doing a damn good job paying homage to his founding fathers...
- absolutepunk.net
2013-07-25
★★★★★
If you really want to get where Mayer Hawthorne's coming from, it's not enough to just check out his first two studio albums, A Strange Arrangement and How Do You Do. Those records got retro-soul revivalist tags stapled on to them, thanks to a hip-hop fiend's sense of vintage soul that drew heavily off Stax/Motown goodwill vibes...
- pitchfork.com
2013-07-18
★★★★★
Mayer Hawthorne moves away from retro-Motown stylings without completely reinventing himself on his third record filled with breezy pop. The singer/DJ and his all-star producers, including Pharrell, certainly know how to craft sharply arranged, addictive songs; unfortunately the music still sounds too beholden to the past. Many of the tracks come across as homages to blue-eyed soul sources ranging from Daryl Hall to Boz Scaggs...
- www.bostonglobe.com
2013-07-17
★★★★★
Mayer HawthorneWhere Does This Door Go (Universal-Republic) Rating: 4 Stars (out of 5) Where Does This Door Go, the third album by Los Angeles neo-soul crooner Mayer Hawthorne, begins post-coitally. There's a satisfied moan, a pair of pants being zipped up, and a woman's voice saying, "Wait, you're not going to tell anyone about this right?", only to be followed by a surprised "Huh?...
- www.americansongwriter.com
2013-07-17
★★★★★
With his latest album, Where Does This Door Go, Mayer Hawthorne has officially moved beyond just being a sort of throwback soul singer and become a genre-melding pop artist who seems to be coming into his own as a songwriter and arranger just in time to achieve major mainstream success.
Where Does This Door Go has a lot going on, and it's clear to see how Hawthorne has built upon the style he was just beginning to cultivate on his last album, 2011's How Do You Do, where he infused his...
- www.pastemagazine.com
2013-07-17
★★★★★
Michigan-bred singer-songwriter Mayer Hawthorne has a little problem with being taken seriously. His throwback Motown hooks and Curtis Mayfield-style falsetto just don't seem natural coming from a nerdy-looking white guy from the Midwest. It also doesn't help that he staged a semi-goofy, semi-genuine live-streamed halftime show from his parents' house in 2011 after Nickelback was tapped for the real thing at the Detroit Lions' annual Thanksgiving game...
- www.avclub.com
2013-07-16
★★★★★
In the music biz, it's always hard to know where to go next. The evolving genres definitely create new opportunities to experiment, but when you're listening to the fans, the critics, the labels...things tend to get really sloppy. On his first two albums, Mayer Hawthorne appeared content with digging into his smart war chest of nostalgia, even if he had been ruthlessly branded as the pale imitation of yesterday's soul heroes...
- www.soultracks.com
2013-07-16
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