John Mayer - Battle Studies
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CD Details
Artist: John MayerEdition: Music CD
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
CD Release Date: 2009-11-17
Music Label: Sony
Product features:
- MAYER JOHN BATTLE STUDIES
- Heartbreak Warfare
- All We Ever Do Is Say Goodbye
- Half Of My Heart
- Who Says
- Perfectly Lonely
- Assassin
- Crossroads
- War Of My Life
- Edge Of Desire
- Do You Know Me
- Friends, Lovers Or Nothing
Music reviews of Battle Studies
Music Review: Good, But Doesn't Encompass What He's Truly Capable of...
Rating: 3 Stars
Lately it seems as though John Mayer has been bent on committing social/career suicide with certain awesome (me being sarcastic) comments he's made in various interviews. If you haven't heard anything about it, they're the kind of comments he's had to issue public apologies for ([...]). I was having a conversation with a close friend recently and he said something along the lines of, "I really want to like John Mayer but lately he's been making it really hard."
This isn't anything we haven't seen any number of other times with various celebrities. But as far as John Mayer goes I feel that it's a particular shame because the dude is really intelligent and seems like a cool guy. It seems as though he's realized he may need to stop with the stupid comments, let's just hope that from here on out he sticks to what he does best--playing the crap out of the guitar.
Enough about that.
Around the time John Mayer released his album "Room For Squares" and was really beginning to gain popularity I really didn't care for his music too much. But when he began his John Mayer Trio venture in 2005 with Steve Jordan on drums and Pino Palladino on bass, my interest was piqued. Until then, I'd written Mayer off because I really didn't care for songs like "No Such Thing", or "Your Body Is A Wonderland" but when I heard the Trio's first single "Who Did You Think I Was" I thought to myself, "This guy can really play."
From my exposure to the John Mayer Trio and enjoyment of their subsequent live album "Try!" I decided that I'd go back and give Mayer's studio work a chance and since then I've really come to appreciate it for what it is--mostly good (sometimes great) music that comes from a very creative individual. If you like poppy or bluesy guitar work, then Mayer is the man for you. I might even go so far as to say he's our modern day Stevie Ray Vaughn. Well, he could be if he'd allow himself to be.
Mayer's latest studio effort "Battle Studies" is a good album. But for him, it's a safe album at best. There really aren't many risks taken. It's his fourth full-length album and it explores the territory of relationships, mostly as it pertains to their downfall. The frustrating thing for me is that this album and his last, 2006s "Continuum", have all the elements to be official John Mayer Trio albums in that both Steve Jordan and Pino Palladino are present on almost all of the tracks and are even pictured in the booklet for "Continuum". In addition, Jordan also shares production credit with Mayer for both albums. But these albums just don't have the same feel that the official Trio releases did. Yes, they are good albums but my personal desire is that he would focus more on the Trio, cause it's there that he allows himself to be a bit more daring.
All with see with "Battle Studies" is more of the hopeless romantic and contemplative John Mayer. The album's opener "Heartbreak Warfare" its best track by far. It just has an overall unique sound with lots of cool guitar overdubs and experimentations. The straight up drumbeat and cool bass part only contribute to its coolness. That song alone would garner at least a four star review but the rest of the album, while okay, seems to just pull it down.
Other high points are the smooth-jazz feeling "Assassin" and the funky drumbeat and fuzzy guitar sound on the song "Crossroads". Other than that, the rest of the songs just kind of blur together.
Taylor Swift is present for a vocal duet with John on the song "Half of My Heart", but even then it almost qualifies as a "Why bother?" moment as her voice is only singularly discernable for literally two lines of lyrics in the entire song.
"Battle Studies" as a whole is a creatively solid album but does not at all represent or explore the territory that John Mayer is truly capable of.
As far as the live experience goes, as if to add to my suffering, Steve Jordan himself was present with Mayer as his touring drummer--which in the past hasn't been the case. I found myself genuinely wishing that Pino Palladino had been present too because if that were they case maybe we could have been treated to a small Trio set somewhere in the middle like John did with his most recent live release "Where the Light Is". With that experience he started the show off with a solo acoustic set, then moved on to a Trio set in the middle, and finally finished things off with a full band performance of his most famous solo songs.
As far as the show I saw, no such luck. But seeing Steve Jordan was a real treat as he is one of my favorite drummers. And even though there was no presence of official Trio material, the evening didn't disappoint overall. Mayer's guitar playing is entertaining enough in and of itself but the various facial expressions he makes only make him more fun to watch.
One of my favorite things about the live concert experience is when the artist or band personalizes the experience by adding in impromptu jam sessions between or at the end of songs. This concert in particular was chock full of them. One such jam session was the highlight of the evening for me in that it started off with a drum solo by Jordan and gradually led into a jam session with the full band. To me, those are the kinds of things that make the price of admission close to being worth it.
One thing in particular that keeps this concert experience at a four star level instead of the full five is the lack of rocking guitar solos. There were plenty of soulful blues solos which were great, but I just kept finding myself wishing I could witness something along the lines of his guitar solo from the song "Wait Until Tomorrow"--the Jimi Hendrix cover from the Trio's "Try!" album.
Overall the concert was enjoyable and there were definitely head-bobbing moments but I kind of felt awkward as I didn't fit the bill for what the majority of the crowd seemed to be--either middle school girls or middle-aged women (let's be honest, Cougars). But if John's music has proven to appeal to people of all ages and sexes alike then more power to him.
When all is said and done, if I had a personal message/question for John it would probably be, "Why can't you capture the energy you consistently display at your live shows and put that on a studio album?"
Description of Battle Studies
As one of few musicians to achieve both critical acclaim and popular appeal, seven-time Grammy Award winner John Mayer has earned accolades for each album release while topping the radio charts and selling in excess of 15 million albums worldwide. Featuring the hits Heartbreak Warfare and Half of My Heart , Battle Studies is no exception. Debuting at #1 in November 2009 and now certified Platinum, Battle Studies Expanded Edition adds video of his recent VH1 Storytellers broadcast plus two intimate acoustic performances from John s personal travels to Japan in May 2010.Pop CDs
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