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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.

Way back in the Fall of 2003, Dave Matthews briefly changed gears and put out a solo album called Some Devil. It had a much slower and softer sound with a lot less jamming than the albums he would typically put out with the band, and with a few exceptions, the album didn’t really do it for me. But it’s a funny thing about albums; sometimes you’ll hear a new album and it just won’t do it for you, but after awhile, maybe weeks, maybe months, maybe years, you’ll give it another shot and listen in an entirely different way. Suddenly, you’re feeling it.

Thanks to a friend on the twitterverse recently pointing out that there is just something about Some Devil that makes it the perfect fall album, I went back and gave it a listen. Damn. When you step back and view the album on its own, without expecting it to be a Dave Matthews Band album, it’s overall a really good album and truly has something to say, and yes, it totally is an essential fall album.

Some Devil is a darker album where Matthews adapts a more melancholy, brooding sound. The tracks flow together smoothly, and beat along in a bluesy sort of way. As one song rolls into the next, Matthews sings about loss, holding on, letting go, but most of all, it seems to be about having hope in a sometimes sad world. Tracks like “Baby” drive that home as Matthews sings “You’ll be a ship in a bottle, set sail.” He addresses our mortality, and seems to say that sometimes life can seem bleak, and some days are hard, and other times things just plain suck, but all we can do is try and rise above it all. The tracks that follow, “Up and Away” and “Too High,” reinforce that idea…have hope, dream big, because life’s going to go by pretty fast, so do something while you’re here and there’s still time to do it. The slow hands are quickening.