Battle Studies Doesn’t Live Up to Mayer’s Potential

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, “Perfectly Lonely” is one of the more upbeat jam songs that Battle Studies has to offer, but “Crossroads,” an old Robert Johnson blues song that’s been covered by a wide range of artists, is easily the strongest song on the entire album. It’s got blues, it’s got soul, it’s got rhythm, and it shows that Mayer isn’t afraid to do something kind of fun and funky on an album. And just when the album really picks up with “Crossroads,” and slowly wanes back into a weak and uninteresting album. It’s disappointing to say the least.

After four solo albums, John Mayer has shown that he’s very comfortable making soft but soulful albums, and it’s a style that’s really suited him. But he’s also branched out to experiment with a more bluesy style, and has furthermore, shown that he is perfectly capable of really rocking out and doing some fun stuff, and it would be great to see more of that here, but for some reason, it isn’t. Battle Studies is a well composed album, but it’s just not a testament to how talented Mayer actually is.

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