Album of the week: John Mayer's 'Paradise Valley'

• * * * out of four
• He duets with his girlfriend Katy Perry on %27Who You Love%27
• His backing band includes Chuck Leavell and Paul Franklin

John Mayer is probably not the guy you want for a relationship role model, but few pop acts disguise pleasure as intimacy so seductively. Paradise Valley (* * * out of four) may have all the permanence of a summer camp fling, with a motto summed up by a shuffling cover of J.J. Cale's Call Me the Breeze, but that doesn't make his duet with Katy Perry any less enchanting.

Using a studio band that includes Chuck Leavell on keyboards and Paul Franklin on pedal-steel guitar, Mayer brings a country-folk flavor to these songs, echoing the Marshall Tucker Band's easygoing Southern rock, Ernest Tubb's honky-tonk and the Garfunkel half of Simon & Garfunkel.

When the summer's over, Mayer sings in On the Way Home, "It takes a little while but you'll be fine/ Another good time coming down the line."

Download:Paper Doll, Wildfire, Who You Love (featuring Katy Perry)