Review: Battle Studies

A post by "Blake the Megalomaniac" To see more posts click here

I walk into my building around 7:30pm and proceed to check my mailbox located on the first floor.  It’s around dinner time and I smell what seems to be baking bread. It’s divine. I proceed to the second floor where I smell salmon and it’s horrid.  Don’t get me wrong salmon tastes good but on the outside looking in it’s not the best thing to smell after you’ve just whiffed fresh bread.  It’s actually a let down.

Battle Studies is John Mayer’s latest offering and it’s also a let down.  Now before I write a few words on how I dislike it, I’ll preface it by saying I thoroughly enjoyed Continuum. Continuum was fresh.  It displayed Mayer’s ability as a guitarist, song writer, and lyricist.  It was dark and not prissy and had depth.

Battle Studies wasn’t Continuum and maybe it wasn’t supposed to be.  Artists should be able to display their growth and experiment at will but when that experiment fails it’s okay for fans to express their disdain.  Normally, I wouldn’t.  I don’t put up critical reviews of anything but I figure with Mayer being an A-list musical talent that really isn’t dependent as much on word of mouth marketing especially from a know-nothing like me that it’s okay.  This is in contrast to bashing a local restaurant, which I will never do (I just won’t write about it) because I could probably dissuade you from visiting it thus hurting the business of the independent owner and hurting my city and possibly fracturing a family.

Now, I would like Battle Studies if I needed something to go to sleep to.  You know the times when you can’t sleep so you put on some music and it helps you relax? This CD is great for that.  It’s so soft. It’s like a collection of lullaby’s.  Lullaby Studies would be a more fitting title.  Obviously, it seems Mayer is contrasting love with war but even still when you title a CD Battle Studies you have to show more grit and aggression than this.  I’m not speaking like I expected handbanger music but simply naming a song Assassins or Heartbreak Warfare isn’t enough of a parallel to the mental picture I get from digesting Battle Studies.  Maybe I’m off base here. You tell me.

I’m listening to it right now and it’s just blah.  No songs really set themselves apart besides the mainstreamers: Assassins and Heartbreak Warfare and those will more than likely be overplayed on terrestrial radio before the week’s out.  Continuum, I guess, was so well put together that Mayer’s latest album just let me down.  11 out of the 12 songs on Continuum were bonified hits and distinctive. Possibly 4 out of the 11 on Battle Studies were worth anything.

Have you bought Battle Studies?  Do you think Mayer missed his mark or am I wrong here?

food for thought; udothedishes . . .

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