John Mayer's Battle Studies-Josiah's take

John Mayer is no small player in the music industry. Having won several Grammys and achieved multiple top selling songs, Mayer has long since established a sizable following of fans. His smooth voice and excellent guitar skills, mixed with romantic themes and a light touch of blues have kept them coming. Battle Studies builds off Mayer’s regular formula, throwing in some additional musical variation, a song with Taylor Swift, and a cover of the classic rock song “Crossroads” for good measure. This album has already made some significant numbers, selling 286,000 copies in its first week alone. But the question is, “is the success of Mayer’s latest album due to quality or reputation?”

In a live performance prior to the album’s release, Mayer said, "The album is called Battle Studies and that's because it incorporates a lot of the lessons, a lot of the observations, and a little bit of advice. Like a handbook, like a heartbreak handbook." Listeners may draw from such a statement that the album is topically diverse. Not only do all the songs (as expected) have a very distinctive “John Mayer” timbre to them, but they’re all about the same thing. Well over half of the songs focus entirely on emotional conflicts in relationships. Getting in, staying in, getting out, or staying out; it’s really all the same. I suppose for Mayer, who has a reputation for off-and-on relationships with various celebrities, these very well may be “battles” that he’s gone through. However, it makes it hard to find a differentiating value in each song. And, unless you’re a die-hard Mayer fan, or someone who finds comfort in listening to constant emotional drama, you’re going to get tired of it all.

As a result, I would say that I really could only recommend purchasing Battle Studies as a whole to long-time Mayer fans. But, seeing as how the album has been out for a couple months now, the majority of the group should already have it. For those of you that really only value Mayer’s bigger hits, I’d suggest that you find one of the dozen of free music sites to find the nuggets. Those of you who are interested, but less motivated should look into “Heartbreak Warfare”, “Who Says”, and “Perfectly Lonely”.