I wasn't expecting much from John Mayer's new album, "Battle Studies," but it was underwhelming. The whole thing fell flat on its face, except for Who Says and that was released a few weeks before the album was. Mayer is a split artist, releasing poppy music for the money and blues because, well, because it sounds great.
The album sounds dreary, and it sounds as if he tries to combine his poppy guitar progressions with bluesy lyrics. Combined, the two styles fall flat on its face.
The only track worth listening to is Who Says. The sound of his guitar is much lighter than any other track and he sounds like he's having a good time. The lyrics of the other tracks make him depressed about Jeniffer Aniston. This is the track where he gets over it all and relaxes.
Slate provides some good commentary on the new John Mayer single, and I actually agree unlike most of their other Brow Beat stuff. The music video is his rap video done acoustic. It's got the girls, the booze and lack of clothes by a pool (no fly cars though). Once again, this music video proves that he can produce a good song by stopping to deal with everything. Unfortunately, the rest of the album fails to follow the single's lead.
Who Says - John Mayer
And wtf is with the album art? Does anyone else think he's trying to look like James Dean and failing miserably?
I agree so much with this review. I was gonna write up something along similar lines but just didn't bother. this album was so very underwhelming, but "Who Says" is great.
ReplyDeletePS yes he is definitely failing at the James Dean thing. James Dean >>>> John Mayer.