8.5/10
Damn. Just when I was starting to doubt him, he drops this album and does it again. Battle Studies is John Mayer's 5th album, and I'd probably say its his second best, maybe third. Sorry, but I don't see anything beating out Continuum, it was just too perfect. He went for a more mellow vibe on this album, which I was skeptical about at first, but it ended up really working well.
The album is trimmed down perfectly. At 11 tracks, 46 minutes, you get your fix and then it's over before you get bored. Lyrically, John still knows how to write some great songs. I love the whole war theme in "Battle Studies", with tracks like "Heartbreak Warfare", "War of my Life", and "Assassin". He said he was going for a Tom Petty style approach to the music, and wanted to make something that would last forever, and I really think he did. Instrumentally, he's still one of the best guitarists alive right now, although he doesn't show it quite as often as I would've liked. As I mentioned in my album preview on here a few weeks ago, I really wanted more upbeat fast songs that would set up crazy guitar solos, but that didn't happen. There are a few short solos, which do enough to show that he's still got it, but really leaves me wanting more. I can't wait to see what he will do with these songs live. The only other letdown, for me, was "Crossroads". I thought for sure that a John Mayer cover of a classic Cream song (actually a Robert Johnson song that Eric Clapton/Cream decided to cover) would be amazing. But it was kind of awkward. The Cream version of the song is already basically perfect, so I didn't think it could be better, I just wanted it to be different. I wanted to see what John could do with it, and it was kind of boring. It sounded overly synthy and weird. Oh well, can't win them all. So even with the flaws, I think the album really flowed, and after giving it a few listens to grow on me, I couldn't put it down for weeks. Definitely one of my favorite albums of the year.
Listen to my 2 favorite songs, "Perfectly Lonely" and "Assassin" here:
(Also don't forget that I posted "Who Says" and "Heartbreak Warfare" back in the album preview post)
Perfectly Lonely
Assassin
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