Atlanta-based singer/songwriter John Mayer’s major-label debut marks the emergence of another harmless nice guy with an airy voice who sings songs of delicate self-doubt — in other words, he’s the Dave Matthews type, without all the jam. Which is not to say that Room for Squares, a disc originally issued last summer by the Chicago indie Aware and just re-released by Columbia with swanky new artwork and an aggressive promotional push, doesn’t make for a pleasant listen. The 24-year-old Mayer’s trick — and what distinguishes him from the current crop of handsome, post–David Gray troubadours — is his regular-guy modesty, the way songs like the sweeping, pretty "City Love," which describes finding love in an otherwise intimidating New York City, casually reverberate with twentysomething anxiety. Set it against Ryan Adams’s "New York, New York," with its suggestions of a rakish young heartthrob barhopping his way up Gotham’s social ladder, and Mayer starts to come off like the guy in college who deserved all the dates who looked past him for some swaggering frat boy. Room for Squares may not at first stand out in a crowd, but it’s a welcome, reassuring album in these tentative times.

(John Mayer headlines Avalon with opener Bleu next Thursday, February 28. Call 617-423-NEXT.)