John Mayer, Battle Studies

I have been a fan of John Mayer since the album Room For Squares, I like the way this gifted, Grammy awarded guitarist/vocalist disguises blues, jazz, rock and folk into mainstream pop music. Girls want him, musicians are jealous of his skills, he leaves no one indifferent.

On his latest album Battle Studies, John Mayer again proved that he is really a master at writing meaningful lyrics, and heartfelt melodies.

The track listing includes eleven songs; 1-Heartbreak Warfare, 2-All We Ever Do Is Say Goodbye, 3-Half Of My Heart (Featuring Taylor Swift), 4-Who Says, 5-Perfectly Lonely, 6-Assassin, 7-Crossroads (Robert Johnson/Cream/Eric Clapton cover), 8-War Of My Life, 9-Edge Of Desire, 10-Do You Know Me and 11-Friends, Lovers Or Nothing.

My favourite tracks are Assassin (I like the drum and bass groove), Heartbreak Warfare (I like the nice guitar tones) and Edge Of Desire (I like the song, the way he wrote it). A special mention goes to the fresh Crossroads cover (I really need to learn this song at the guitar!). I like this album musically and rhythmically, everything is simple but highly powerful. After a couple of listens, I started to pay more attention to the lyrics. On this record, most of the songs are talking about interpersonal relationships, life and love but even with those over-used candy-pop subjects, John Mayer managed to write Battle Studies in a very deep and mature way.

Overall this album is very well produced, very well written, but it might need more than one listen to become fully appreciated.

Buy this record if you are a musician you won't regret it! John Mayer is a misunderstood genius!