Having been a John Mayer fan for a while now, it’s easy to imagine that I was eagerly awaiting the arrival of his newest album Battle Studies. I purchased the album the other day, gave it a listen, and what I can tell you is that Mr. Mayer has successfully followed up his last album, Continuum. The record begins with the song “Heartbreak Warfare”. Before I can go any further, I must say that this album deals very heavily with love, and having your heart broken (etc., etc., etc.). That being said, the opening track tackles the issues of having your heart broken. It sounds very much like Mayer’s old style found on the album Heavier Things.
The album’s second track, “All We Ever Do Is Say Goodbye”, deals once again with the pains of a heartbreak. Mayer has clearly has had his heart broken a lot! It’s a nice, slow acoustic song, with sweet violins in the background (an excellent addition to the song). This track happens to be one of my favorites on the album.
Taylor Swift (believe it or not) accompanies Mayer on the third song of the album, “Half Of My Heart”. It sounds a lot more like a Taylor Swift song than a John Mayer song, which threw me off.
I didn’t like the reccuring slide guitar solos and the off-vocals in alot of the songs. Also for some reason, the album felt very tired, and over produced. I don’t think that Mayer will EVER be able to top Continuum. Battle Studies is definitely worth a listen though, so here is a track from the album as well a link to the iTunes store if you are interested in buying it.
