1 Liner: John Mayer – Battle Studies
Much like John Mayer’s career, ‘Battle Studies’, is like a roller coaster hitting the highs of “Perfectly Lonely” or “Half Of My Heart” to the lows of the repetitive and flat out boring “Assassin”. Overall the album doesn’t have as much longevity as ‘Continuum’, but in the end is decent.
Tags: battle studies, john mayer
November 10th, 2009 at 1:06 am
Funnily enough, “Assassin” is seen by 90% of the early reviewers as the stand out track. You can’t account for taste, I suppose. :)
November 10th, 2009 at 7:33 am
I was tired of 90% of the reviews out there, hence doing this site.
November 10th, 2009 at 8:50 am
Assassin is an outstanding track–probably the best on the album. I’m sorry, I don’t know how it could be regarded as boring. The music complements the lyrics to a tee–very moody, soulful feel. When that chorus kicks in, it’s heaven. I think most fans of “I Don’t Trust Myself With Loving You” will enjoy this track.
November 10th, 2009 at 9:09 am
The chorus is what’s hard to handle about this song. It’s basically a retelling of the movie Mr. and Mrs. Smith. I can already see I’m going to get a hard time for not liking this song, but it just isn’t as good as others.
November 10th, 2009 at 5:25 pm
That smiths comment is funny. The song has nothing to do with real assassins or hitmen. Its about a womanizer that falls in love with a girl.
November 10th, 2009 at 7:03 pm
@wolfgang haha, right, but same idea, same feeling.
November 11th, 2009 at 10:32 am
after a first listen, i’d have to say the opener; heartbreak warfare stands out as the best in my opinion. its the first original sounding song from john in a while. the rest of the tracks are heavy pop blues, the like of which we heard a ton of in continuum.
November 11th, 2009 at 6:59 pm
I have to completely disagree, Assassin is by far the best song on the album, it has a very fresh sound Mayer hasn’t done before. The Mr. Mrs Smith comment made absolutely no sense. The song is about a guy who, like Wolfgang said, a womanizer who doesn’t get attached who is hooking up with a girl casually as normal but then “suddenly I’m in over my head,” starts getting deeper involved. “Little did I know that girl was an Assassin too.” Tables are turned as the girl is actually like him in that she was just having a good time, and he found himself in the unlikely position of being more attached than the girl was. I saw him play an early demo of this and I can tell you its even better live, the song has some very interesting chord changes and sounds really good acousticly. This one and Edge of Desire are by far the standout songs on an uneven but good overall record.
November 18th, 2009 at 6:43 pm
Hard to beleive how Assassin could be regarded as boring. The song is sick–Musically textured, a strong narrative, vibey, quality John Mayer. Heartbreak Warfare and Edge of Desire are in the same league quality wise. I wish the album had more like this, and not the sugary bluesy-folk. Uneven I agree, wish it was slightly more consistent and had a bit more substance. Musical, lyrical and stylistic substance is what Jm has really excelled at over the years.