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The new John Mayer album entitled Battle Studies was released just last week and received generally moderate reviews across the board. It’s difficult to peg the album as good or bad, the album arguably offers some great songs and is overall a well-written piece of work, but Mayer really needs to step his game up in his solo work. He’s a hell of a guitarist and has proven that he can really rock out, just see “Who Did You Think I Was” and his cover of Ray Charles‘  “I Got a Woman” with the John Mayer Trio on their album Try! The fact that he can jam to songs like these just makes it feel as if he’s holding back with the majority of his music.

A major problem with Battle Studies is the fact that it has a weak opening. The first two songs are slow and melodic and do nothing to pull the listener in. Referring to the 45 minute length of the album on his twitter account, Mayer said, “Hit ‘em hard and get out,” but he really does not live up to that. Similarly, the last few songs fall back into that slow, melodic sound that makes them fairly forgettable.

With the third track, “Half of My Heart,” a duet with Taylor Swift, the album gets a bit interesting and Mayer has more fun with it, rolling into the album’s first single, “Who Says,” a soft but strong and effective tune that takes the time to celebrate life a little bit. Ironically (more…)

Pearl Jam’s latest album, Backspacer, was released back in September, and it’s clear that Eddie Vedder and the guys still know how to rock. The new album has a refreshingly unique sound in comparison to Pearl Jam’s previous albums, delivering something that has a far more upbeat tone than anything they’ve done before. Sure, there is still a dark component present on the album, the opening track being “Gonna See My Friend,” which is clearly a song about drug addiction, and subsequent tracks touching upon loneliness and growing older, but there is definitely a flip side to that.

While some view the admission of growing older in songs like “Speed of Sound” and “The End” as a red flag for retirement, it feels more like accepting the changing times and simply maturing. The band can still rock, there’s no doubt about that based on the first few tracks of album, and more proof of that is their recent show closing out the Wachovia Spectrum Arena in Philadelphia with a 41 song set list, but they transition into a softer, yet more uptempo sound with Backspacer. Vedder’s solo work on the Into the Wild soundtrack had a very folk-influenced sound, which may have in turn influenced a new direction for Pearl Jam as a whole.

There is far less brooding on this album, in fact, there is very little brooding on this album. Instead, Backspacer is more about being optimistic and hopeful, living and loving. Songs like “Just Breathe” and”The End” are actually somewhat passionate love songs, an interesting departure for the band, while songs like “Supersonic” profess a love for music. Granted, the band slows it down at times, but Backspacer strikes a balance between sentimentality and punk, maintaining its composure as a strong rock album with an ever-present rush of that rock n’ roll energy.

Backspacer was probably the most anticipated new album of the fall, and its great to see that it did not disappoint. It’s fast and brief, but it’s also a tightly knit and well-organized album that manages to have meaning for the band and move them in a refreshing direction. More than anything though, Backspacer is just a great rock record from a great rock band, and it’s encouraging and inspiring to see that nine albums later Pearl Jam hasn’t lost their touch.

FlashForward has not just been the best new series of the season, it actually might be the best series of the season. As in my previous post, the show actually moves, and really hasn’t slowed down since its premiere. As the characters grapple with knowing their future, the major question of the series has been whether what they saw is what would happen, or if it happens because they saw their future. Can they change it or not? Well the last episode proved to be a game changer, possibly answering that question.

Using clues he remembers seeing on the mozaic in his flash forward, Mark (Joseph Fiennes) and Demetri (John Cho) have been investigating leads, trying to figure out what the clues may lead to, seeking out a cause for the flash forwards.  Agent Al Gough (Lee Thompson Young) has also been involved in the investigation, and has begun helping with one such lead that is a sticker with a blue hand on it, which they started looking into after they were attacked by a group of men with the same blue hand stamped on their hands. Ultimately, they learned that there was a Blue Hand club, basically a murder club for people who didn’t have flash forwards, and therefore believe they will be dead.

MAJOR SPOILER ALERT COMING UP FROM EPISODE 7: THE GIFT. Now, what we did know was that Al had a flash forward and saw where he actually was, looking over a file with MI6 Agent Fiona Banks (Alex Kingston). What we didn’t know, was that Al received a phone call from a lawyer, breaking the news that (more…)

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen recently hit DVD shelves, and this particular sequel is loaded with even more action than the original.The story picks up shortly after the first movie, with Sam (Shia LaBeouf) heading off to college while Optimus Prime and the Autobots have joined forces with Major Lennox (Josh Duhamel) and Sergeant Epps’ (Tyrese Gibson) unit to hunt Decepticons. Megan Fox of course returns as Sam’s girlfriend Mikaela (yeah, robots at war aside, she’s another great reason to watch these movies) and John Turturro also returns as Simmons, whose secret government department has now been disbanded. Joining the cast as Sam’s roommate and added comic relief is Ramon Rodriguez.

In any case, the story primarily focuses on the realization that the robots  that came to Earth in the first movie are not the first of their kind to have ever been there. The Fallen is an ancient transformer who attempted to burn out the sun as a power source, but was ultimately stopped by his brothers, and now he’s risen again with intentions of carrying out his plan. Making matters worse, the government accuses the Autobots of putting Earth in the middle of their war with the Decepticons, questioning whether their presence on Earth is in the best interests of the planet.

Despite the many criticisms of the movie, it was definitely a great action flick. It was long, and certainly somewhat exhausting to say the least, but director Michael Bay quite literally outdid himself with some of the action sequences. The use of the Constructicons in particular was great…that’s right, five transformers that (more…)

As much as it pains me to get sucked into yet another TV series, let alone one revolving around mysterious sci-fi occurrences, I caved and watched the premiere of ABC’s new series V. This is probably 2009’s hottest new show, right behind FlashForward, also on ABC. Sci-fi, has suddenly become cool. The series is a reboot of a miniseries of the same name that aired way back in 1983, and is produced by the same team behind another cult sci-fi series from a few years ago called The 4400.

The re-imagined version of the show essentially follows the same story as the original, involving aliens (referred to as V’s for visitors) who come to Earth claiming to be well-intentioned and peaceful (offering things like universal health care, how humorously political of the writers). Some people are welcoming and curious, taking tours of the ship and agreeing to aid the V’s by becoming peace ambassadors within their neighborhoods, while others are skeptical of the V’s intentions. The pilot episode doesn’t hold back on getting right into the crux of the story, bringing the principal cast together, and revealing that the skeptics just might have something to be very skeptical about.

The cast consists of some familiar faces such as Elizabeth Mitchell, best known from ABC’s Lost as Juliet, as Erica Evans, an FBI agent; Scott Wolf as Chad Decker, a TV news anchor who is offered to interview the V’s leader, Anna (Morena Baccarin); and Morris Chestnut as Ryan Nichols, a man who seems to have a history (more…)

Friday Night Lights just might be the best show on television that you aren’t watching, but it isn’t too late to start. Season 4 premiered on Wednesday on DirecTV (hang tight NBC viewers, it’ll be back in February, similar to last year), and the series is heading in a very different direction now that East Dillon High School has reopened and the town of Dillon has been divided into two school districts. This spelled bad news for Coach Taylor’s (Kyle Chandler) tenure as head coach of the Dillon Panthers after losing at State championship, as he was moved to coach the new East Dillon Lions while his wife, Tami (Connie Britton), remained principal of Dillon High.

As for the rest of the main players, Matt Saracen (Zach Gilford) ultimately decides to stay in Dillon with his grandmother rather than go to art school in Chicago while Tim Riggins (Taylor Kitsch) surprised everyone by heading off to college on a football scholarship. Well, Saracen is miserable at his local art school but is still dating Coach Taylor’s daughter, Julie (Aimee Teegarden); and Riggins walks out of class, drives home while tossing his school books out the window, and after an awkward confrontation where his brother kicks him out, sleepswith a cocktail waitress named Cheryl (Alicia Witt). One thing you can always count on in this show, is that Riggins will always drink beer and have an entertaining storyline. As for Saracen, he’s now delivering pizzas and putting up with current Panthers star quarterback JD McCoy (Jeremy Sumpter) giving him crap about losing State for them. Last season I felt bad for JD, all the pressure placed on him, this season, wow…what a dick.

Panthers and former Panthers aside, Coach Taylor has his work cut out for him turning the underfunded, misfit East Dillon Lions into a legitimate football team, and it looks like it’s going to be a long season. Landry Clark (Jesse Plemons) is among few (more…)